Two top Trump administration agricultural officials said “substantial and immediate purchases” of U.S. agricultural goods are hinging on several current trade deals, but said they haven’t been told of any plan by Mexico to “immediately” purchase large amounts of U.S. agricultural goods, as President Donald Trump alluded to in a June 8 tweet.

Bipartisan members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee criticized the Trump administration’s emergency decision to sell millions of dollars worth of arms to Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries, with the committee's top-ranking Democrat promising to explore “every possible avenue” to block the sales.

President Donald Trump has threatened to put tariffs on Mexico's auto exports despite a side letter -- already in force -- expressly prohibiting such an action. Then, he decided to put tariffs on all Mexican imports to force Mexico to stop migrants from coming to the U.S. to claim asylum.

As the European Union continues its “extensive preparations” for a no-deal withdrawal of the United Kingdom on Nov. 1, stakeholders should take advantage of the extra time granted by recent Brexit delays to ensure they have “taken all necessary measures” to prepare, the European Commission said in a June 12 press release.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign assets Control sanctioned 16 people and entities, including Syrian oligarch Samer Foz, to cut off “critical supplies and financiers” for Syria's “luxury reconstruction and investment efforts," Treasury said in a June 11 press release. Treasury said Foz has “been profiting heavily front reconstruction efforts” in Syria by building luxury developments on land seized by Syria.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 3-7 in case they were missed.

The U.S. should impose harsher sanctions on the Nicaraguan government, the Daniel Ortega regime and the country’s business leaders or risk the country devolving into a similar situation the U.S. faces with Venezuela, panelists told the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security and Trade on June 11.

China recently updated its customs regulations and policies related to imports of art and auto parts, according to KPMG’s monthly China customs update for the month of May. China has also announced that it is fully implementing the TIR Carnet system, and announced new AD duties on phenol from the U.S., KPMG said. Highlights are as follows:

China is looking into additional measures to protect its technology firms and strengthen controls on exports through a “national technological security management list system,” according to state news agencies.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced a $400,000 settlement agreement with Western Union Financial Services after OFAC said Western Union committed nearly 5,000 violations of the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations, OFAC said in a June 7 notice. Western Union, headquartered in Colorado, processed transactions that involved the Kairaba Shopping Center (KSC) in The Gambia, a Specially Designated National, for more than four years after the entity was sanctioned by OFAC, the notice said. After Western Union discovered KSC was sanctioned, OFAC said, it “failed to deactivate” the entity’s access to Western Union “due to its mistaken belief that” the entity was “already inactive.” Western Union processed transactions worth about $ 1.275 million “to third-party, non-designated beneficiaries who chose to collect their remittances at KSC,” the notice said.