The State Department updated its list of countries certified to have a regulatory program for protection of sea turtles that is comparable to that of the U.S., or to fish in conditions that pose no risk to sea turtles, and therefore eligible to export shrimp to the U.S. without a certification from a government official on State Form DS-2031. The list includes 39 countries and Hong Kong.

The State Department updated its list of countries certified to have a regulatory program for protection of sea turtles that is comparable to that of the U.S., or to fish in conditions that pose no risk to sea turtles, and therefore eligible to export shrimp to the U.S. without a certification from a government official on State Form DS-2031. The list includes 39 countries and Hong Kong. Countries with a comparable regulatory program include Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Gabon, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama and Suriname. Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Uruguay harvest in an environment that poses no risk; and the Bahamas, Belize, China, the Dominican Republic, Fiji, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Oman, Peru, Sri Lanka and Venezuela employ practices that don’t pose a risk to sea turtles, State said.

The State Department received a request from Ecuador in February under a UNESCO agreement to restrict U.S. imports of archaeological and ethnological materials representing Libya’s “cultural patrimony” from the pre-Columbian through Republican periods, State said. Libya filed the request under Article 9 of the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.

The State Department added South Sudan to the list of countries with a denial on the export of defense articles and defense services, the department said in a notice on Feb. 2. State will allow only limited exceptions to a ban on selling defense material or services, and diplomats are urging the United Nations Security Council to pass an arms embargo and for neighboring countries to stop selling arms to the combatants, as well.

Mike Miller, director for regional security and arms transfers in the State Department Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, was named Dec. 26 to take over as State’s acting deputy assistant secretary for defense trade controls, after Brian Nilsson retired from the position effective Dec. 23, State said. Nilsson announced his retirement in mid-December. Miller is “well known” in the defense trade sector, State said. State’s director of defense trade controls compliance position is vacant, after acting director Arthur Shulman resigned from the position effective Dec. 8, a State spokesman said. Until a new director is identified, three team chiefs are filling in for the position: Acting Compliance and Civil Enforcement Chief Jae Shin, Law Enforcement Chief Julia Tulino, and Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and Mergers/Acquisitions Chief Melanie Flaharty.

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls homepage’s Defense Trade Application Systems (DTAS) information system will be unavailable to industry users from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. EST Dec. 21, during routine maintenance, DDTC said. Availability resumes after 6 a.m. EST.

The State Department is considering "targeted sanctions" against Burmese individuals amid the Myanmar military's crackdown on the Rohingya people in that country, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Dec. 15. Additionally, State Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs Sanctions Policy and Implementation Director Sandra Oudkirk said during a Practising Law Institute export controls conference Dec. 15, that sanctions against Myanmar military individuals are "always an option." Steptoe and Johnson attorney Meredith Rathbone a day earlier at the conference said she thinks State will start sanctioning those individuals, adding that the Bureau of Industry and Security also could tighten controls on exports to Myanmar. The Obama administration ordered the lifting of sanctions on Myanmar in October 2016 (see 1610110029), which Oudkirk believes was justified, she said. Any progress toward reimplementing Myanmar sanctions "will take some time" as Congress is "intimately involved" in broad sanctions authorizations, Oudkirk said. BIS and State didn't comment.

The State Department is issuing guidance identifying 33 entities that are part of or that operate for the Russian defense sector and six entities associated with the Russian intelligence sector, State said. Legislation signed into law Aug. 2 provided for sanctions against the Russian defense and intelligence sectors, among other things (see 1708020030).

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls homepage’s Defense Trade Application Systems (DTAS) information system will be unavailable to industry users from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. EST Nov. 30, and 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. EST Dec. 1, for routine maintenance, DDTC said.

Streamlined customs procedures and removal of trade barriers could boost intra-regional trade in South Asia from the current $28 billion to more than $100 billion, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Oct. 18 during a Center for Strategic and International Studies event. South Asian nations trade with one another only about 4 percent or 5 percent of the time, Tillerson added, while intra-regional trade among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members composes 25 percent of those nations’ total trade.