Turkey recently granted its agriculture ministry the authority to restrict exports of 20 agricultural products in an effort to lower domestic food inflation, USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service said in a Jan. 28 report. As of the report, USDA said the ministry hasn’t yet limited the exports but could decide to impose the restrictions in the future, “depending on local market conditions.” The authority, which is valid through Dec. 31, could apply to potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, lemons, various meats, eggs and other foods.

Retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. cost exporters more than $27 billion from mid-2018 to the end of 2019, with sales to China accounting for about 95% of the losses, USDA said in a new report this month. Although the phase one U.S.-China trade deal and China’s tariff exemption programs helped to “significantly” rebound some U.S. exports to the country, the agency said U.S. market share still remained below pre-retaliatory tariffs levels one year after the deal.

The U.K. lifted its suspension on licensing military exports to Turkey, the Export Control Joint Unit said in a Dec. 13 notice. Confident that decisions on all license applications to Turkey can be taken on a case-by-case basis following a careful assessment against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, the ECJU released the military export suspension and will work with advisory government departments to get through some of the applications, it said. The expectation is that the unit will take around eight weeks to clear the backlog of existing applications for Turkey, the ECJU said.

The Bureau of Industry and Security added 37 entities to the Entity List, including 34 Chinese research institutes and technology companies, for supporting China’s military modernization efforts or Iran’s weapons program. Other entities added to the list, located in Georgia, Malaysia and Turkey, supplied U.S.-origin items to Iranian defense industries, BIS said.

The European Union initiated a pair of anti-circumvention investigations into its antidumping and countervailing duty orders on certain woven and/or stitched glass fiber fabrics from China and Egypt, consigned from Turkey, the European Commission said. The investigation will cover certain woven and/or stitched glass fiber fabrics consigned from Turkey, whether declared as originating in Turkey or not. The investigations were initiated after TECH-FAB Europe requested them in November, alleging that assembly operations in Turkey substantially increased after the imposition of the orders.

The Bureau of Industry and Security will add 37 entities to the Entity List this week for supporting China’s military modernization efforts or Iran’s weapons program and defense industries. The entities, located in China, Georgia, Malaysia and Turkey, will be subject to a license review policy of presumption of denial for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations. No license exceptions will be available for the entities, BIS also added three additional aliases under Huawei’s Entity List entry. The additions take effect Dec. 17.

The European Union initiated an antidumping investigation on ceramic tiles from India and Turkey, the European Commission said in a Dec. 13 notice. Specifically, the commission will look into "ceramic flags and paving, hearth or wall tiles; ceramic mosaic cubes and the like, whether or not on a backing; finishing ceramic," following an allegation from the European Ceramic Tile Manufacturers' Association that imports of the subject goods are harming the European industry. The investigation will cover exports from the two countries into the EU for the period July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.

A host of countries aligned with the European Union's recent sanctions measures concerning the situation in Guinea, cyberattacks against the EU or its member states and Turkey's unauthorized drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean, the European Council said. North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Ukraine and Moldova aligned with the Guinea sanctions regime that extends to Oct. 27, 2022, the council noted Dec. 2.

The United Kingdom extended the countervailing duty on rainbow trout from Turkey from Jan. 30, 2021, to Jan. 30, 2026, the Department for International Trade said in a Nov. 30 notice. The duties apply to "rainbow trout live, fresh, chilled, frozen or smoked whether in the form of whole fish (with heads and gills on), gutted, weighing 1.2kg or less each, or with heads off, gilled or gutted (weighing 1kg or less each), or in the form of fillets (weighing 400g or less each)," with duties varying between 1.5% and 9.5%.

Gerassimos Thomas, director-general for taxation and customs union at the European Commission, said American observers of the carbon border adjustment mechanism are wrong to focus on the lack of a U.S. cap and trade or carbon tax when thinking about how the CBAM will affect U.S. exporters. The main threshold exports to the Euopean Union have to reach is if the goods are made with the same amount or less carbon intensity than EU-produced goods, he said during an online program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, The CBAM will only apply to steel, aluminum, cement, fertilizer and electricity, not to finished products made with these goods.