A Tennessee resident who is a naturalized U.S. citizen and also an Iranian citizen was sentenced to 46 months in prison for smuggling more than $100,000 worth of items from the U.S. to Iran, the Justice Department said July 16. Aiden Davidson, manager of New Hampshire-based Golden Gate International, pleaded guilty in March (see 2003030055) to being involved in at least 10 exports of containers of industrial goods and equipment to Iran, which included motors, pumps and valves, the Justice Department said. Documents associated with the shipments falsely listed a business in Turkey as the ultimate consignee. Davidson received about $1 million in wire transfers for the exports between 2014 and 2017. He was arrested in September 2018.

The United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade on June 29 updated its guidance on existing trade agreements with non-European Union countries. The guidance now reflects that the U.K. has begun trade negotiations with Turkey and Vietnam. Turkey is part of the EU Customs Union, so any deal between the U.K. and the EU will affect the U.K.’s trading relationship with Turkey, the guidance said.

Turkey plans to ban production and imports of 16 active substances found in plant protection products, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service said in a June 19 report. The import ban, which will take effect for each of the substances over a “transitional period” from June 30 through Dec. 31, will impact difenacoum, fenamidone, triadimenol, chlorothalonil and other substances because of their harmful effects on humans and the environment, the report said. The move is aimed at harmonizing Turkish regulations with European Union rules.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of June 19 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of June 12 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of June 1 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of May 29 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

7The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of May 20 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

The Trump administration is still considering sanctioning India over purchases of Russian missile defense systems, a top State Department official said. Alice Wells, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, said there remains widespread support both within the administration and in Congress for sanctioning buyers of Russian military goods, adding that India needs to choose either U.S. or Russian military equipment, but cannot have both.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on May 4 announced “increased availability” of credit guarantees for agricultural exports for 2020. The credit is available under the Commodity Credit Corporation’s Export Credit Guarantee Program, and includes export credit for Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, the Caucasus region, Central Asia, Asia and Latin America.