Indian economic reforms such as passage of its Goods and Services Tax are helping the U.S. and India move toward their shared goal of increasing the value of yearly bilateral trade, from $100 billion currently, to $500 billion, a senior State Department official said during a briefing previewing Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to India and Bangladesh this week (here). “Clearly, for two-way trade to reach that level, much needs to happen in terms of trade and economic reforms, and we have seen some movement in that direction,” the official said. “We think that further reforms will only help unleash greater trade and investment, which is something that I think will benefit the people of both countries.” Additionally, the U.S. is pursuing civil nuclear cooperation with India “aggressively and ambitiously,” as firms continue to work through associated matters with the government of India, the official said.

The U.S.-Mexico Air Transport Agreement entered into force Aug. 21, and is expected to grow bilateral trade and travel, the State Department said (here). The agreement will create more opportunities for cargo airlines to fly across the border, the White House has said (see 1607220048). “By providing greater opportunities for passenger and cargo airlines to fly between any points in Mexico and the United States, the new agreement will benefit travelers, businesses, airports and communities in both countries, as well as U.S. and Mexican airlines,” State said in a statement.

Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) systems, including DTrade and Electronic Form Submission (EFS), will undergo system maintenance and may be unavailable to industry from 6:30 p.m. Eastern Aug. 19 to 6 a.m. Eastern Aug. 22, DDTC said (here).

The State Department extended the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (here), State said. "Global Terrorist" designations include prohibitions against knowingly providing, or attempting or conspiring to provide, material support or resources to, or engaging in transactions with, the individuals. The designations also freeze all property and interests of the individuals in the U.S. or in the control of U.S. citizens.

The State Department Cultural Property Advisory Committee in October will review proposals to extend memoranda of understanding between the U.S. and Peru, and the U.S. and Cyprus, regarding import restrictions on cultural and archaeological materials from those countries, State said (here). During the closed portion of the committee’s meeting scheduled for Oct. 25-27, advisors will review the extension of a U.S.-Peru MOU imposing import restrictions on goods from pre-Hispanic cultures and certain ethnological material from Peru’s colonial period, as well as an MOU between the U.S. and Cyprus on import restrictions on pre-classical and classical archaeological and Byzantine and post-Byzantine period ecclesiastical and ritual ethnological materials. Peru (here) and Cyprus (here) both expressed an interest to Washington in extending the respective MOUs, State said. The committee will hold an open portion of the meeting to hear oral public comments on the proposals starting at 9:15 a.m. Oct. 25. State is also accepting written comments on the MOUs until Sept. 30.

Buenos Aires will host the first meeting of the U.S.-Argentina Trade and Investment Framework Agreement on Aug. 29, according to a joint statement released from the U.S.-Argentina High-Level Dialogue on Aug. 4 (here).Secretary of State John Kerry and Argentina's Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra agreed to expand bilateral exchanges among agencies on single trade windows, anti-money laundering, census data collection and entrepreneurship, among other areas.

The State Department extended the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation for Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami (here), and determined Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (here) and Mohamed Abrini (here) to be Specially Designated Global Terrorists, State said. "Global Terrorist" designations include prohibitions against knowingly providing, or attempting or conspiring to provide, material support or resources to, or engaging in transactions with, the individuals. The designations also freeze all property and interests of the individuals in the U.S. or in the control of U.S. citizens.

The U.S. plans to give up to $15 million to support several regional projects for the “C5” Central Asian nations, including a program to boost horticultural exports and cross-border transportation corridors in those countries, the State Department said (here). The Central Asia Business Competitiveness project is being created to cultivate horticultural subsectors with strong export potential, and will work with companies to bolster competitiveness and participation in global value chains, as well as with government trade authorities on policies to generate more exports. State’s Transport Corridor Development (TCD) project is meant to cut the costs and time of moving goods across Central Asia, and to increase the quality of transport and logistics services across the region, State said. The program will target businesses, trade authorities and governments to identify and lower non-tariff barriers to trade along “key corridors,” State said. TCD will also work with transportation and logistics firms to improve efficiency and competitiveness, including providing logistics firms with training and information on competitiveness benchmarking, route planning, air freight trends, refrigerated transport developments, freight consolidation and logistics center management, among other things, State said. C5+1 officials agreed to these initiatives on Aug. 3 during the second annual C5+1 ministerial in Washington. The C5+1 comprises Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, plus the U.S.

Secretary of State John Kerry and Brunei's Second Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Pehin Lim Jock Seng committed to find ways to bolster bilateral trade capacity and reaffirmed their support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership during a recent meeting, a State Department spokesperson said (here).

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) should clarify that country of birth is no longer a factor in determining nationality for licensing purposes, and that employers should be solely responsible for signing non-disclosure agreements for any dual and third country national to access defense articles covered by a license, the United Kingdom’s Export Group for Aerospace, Defence and Dual-Use (EGADD) said in comments to DDTC (here). DDTC accepted industry comments in connection with its June announcement of a final rule to update definitions in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), respectively, to enhance clarity and consistency of terms between both export regimes (see 1606020004). Unless there's "convincing evidence that the previous provision," which placed the responsibility for signing the NDA on the employer, "has resulted in identifiable damage to the security of the United States, we urge that it is retained, or, better still, dropped altogether, as of negligible utility.” DDTC posted those comments along with others, including from Boeing, Akin Gump and the Semiconductor Industry Association, on July 21. A State Department official said DDTC will respond to industry comments in its final rule expected Sept. 1.