Florida resident Victor Mones Coro was sentenced to 55 months in prison for violating U.S. sanctions on Venezuela by chartering private flights for top Venezuelan officials, the Department of Justice said March 17. Sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Mones Coro provided millions of dollars in charter flight services to former Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami, his frontman Samark Lopez Bello, Venezuelan Supreme Court President Maikel Moreno and President Nicolas Maduro's 2018 campaign for president. The chartered flights violate the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions on the Venezuelan officials for their role in subverting democracy and proliferating authoritarianism. Mones Coro also will pay a $250,000 fine and serve two years of supervised release.

The Biden administration plans to coordinate more closely with Congress on U.S. weapons sales than the previous administration did, including on potentially controversial exports to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Closer coordination on weapons sales would be a departure from some sales under the Trump administration, which was criticized by House and Senate Democrats for stonewalling congressional oversight of emergency arms transfers (see 2008110027).

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Feb. 22 (some may also be given separate headlines):

A U.S. adhesive manufacturing company said it was issued a warning letter from the Treasury Department after disclosing potential violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran, according to the company’s Jan. 26 Securities and Exchange Commission filing. H.B. Fuller said customers of its subsidiaries in Turkey and India may have sold its hygiene products into Iran, which would have violated U.S. sanctions. The company said it disclosed the violations to the Office of Foreign Assets Control in 2018, and in December OFAC issued a cautionary letter with no penalty. H.B. Fuller said the transactions at the center of the potential violations represented less than 1% of the company’s 2018 net revenue.

Turkey recently updated its import tariffs for certain nuts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service reported Jan. 22. The country raised duties on in-shell and shelled walnuts to 15% for all origins, excluding countries with which Turkey has a free trade deal. FAS also said Turkey imposes an additional 10% duty on tree nuts imported from the U.S. in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on Turkish steel.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Jan. 25 (some may also be given separate headlines):

The United Steelworkers, the Steel Manufacturers Association, the American Iron and Steel Institute and two other trade groups wrote to President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 11, telling him that weakening or removing 25% tariffs and quotas on imported steel “before major steel producing countries eliminate their overcapacity and the subsidies and other trade-distorting policies that have fueled the steel crisis will only invite a new surge in imports with devastating effects to domestic steel producers and their workers.” The letter said the Section 232 tariffs allowed idled mills to reopen and laid-off workers to regain their jobs. “Continuation of the tariffs and quotas is essential to ensuring the viability of the domestic steel industry in the face of ... massive and growing excess steel capacity,” they said, pointing to China, Vietnam and Turkey as countries that did not slow down steel production during the COVID-19 pandemic-induced recession.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Jan. 4 (some may also be given separate headlines):

ssssThe United Kingdom on Dec. 29 updated its guidance on existing trade agreements with non-European Union countries. The guidance now includes information on trade agreements that will take effect Jan. 1, 2021, with Turkey, Vietnam, the Solomon Islands, Samoa and the Republic of Guyana.

The United Kingdom and Turkey signed a free trade agreement that will maintain existing preferential tariff levels and ensure trade continues as usual after the Brexit transition period ends, the U.K. said Dec. 29. The U.K. also said the accord lays the “groundwork for a more ambitious trade relationship” with both sides committed to working on a more comprehensive free trade agreement.