View the recorded sessions from our 2023 Virtual Global Trade Conference where international trade compliance lawyers from around the world reviewed major developments impacting international trade.

On 27 June 2023, the US Departments of State, the Treasury, Labor, Commerce, and Homeland Security, and the United States Agency for International Development issued a joint advisory — the Africa Gold Advisory — that (i) highlights the opportunities and specific risks raised by the gold trade across sub-Saharan Africa and (ii) encourages industry participants to adopt and apply strengthened due diligence practices to guard against such risks.

On 14 June 2023, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control published a Fact Sheet providing a helpful consolidated summary of the various existing exemptions, exceptions, and authorizations relating to the provision of humanitarian assistance that are available under certain US sanctions programs to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fact Sheet is informational only and does not supersede any legal obligations or create new, or modify existing, exemptions, exceptions, or authorizations.

On 4 May 2023, the President Biden issued Executive Order 14098 establishing a sanctions authority that authorizes the US Government to imposes sanctions on persons or entities in Sudan in connection with “the military’s seizure of power in October 2021 and the outbreak of inter-service fighting in April 2023.”

On 17 February 2023, and pursuant to its obligations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Mexico’s Ministry of Economy published in the Federal Official Gazette the much-anticipated Administrative regulation that sets forth the goods which importation is subject to regulation by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (Forced Labor Regulation), which prohibits the importation of goods produced with forced labor. Once Mexico’s Forced Labor Regulation becomes effective on 18 May 2023, all three members of the USMCA trade block, Mexico, Canada, and the United States, will have prohibitions and restrictions on the importation of goods made with forced labor.

Join Baker McKenzie for a webinar on Forced labor developments in Mexico, Canada and the United States on Thursday, 23 March 2023 from 10:00 am – 11:00 am Central Time. In this webinar, the panelists will discuss Mexico’s implementation of the new Forced Labor Regulation, Canada’s implementation of supply chain transparency legislation, US forced labor enforcement trends, customs forced labor best practices and supply chain due diligence recommendations.

After much anticipation since the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement entered into force, on 17 February 2023, the Ministry of Economy published in the Federal Official Gazette an administrative regulation that sets forth the goods, which importation of is subject to regulation by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, which prohibits the importation of goods produced with forced labor.

After much anticipation since the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement entered into force, on 17 February 2023, the Ministry of Economy published in the Federal Official Gazette an Administrative regulation that sets forth the goods which importation is subject to regulation by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, which prohibits the importation of goods produced with forced labor. The Forced Labor Regulation, which will become effective on 18 May 2023, implements the obligation included in the USMCA to prohibit the importation of goods produced in whole or in part by forced or compulsory labor, including forced or compulsory child labor

Baker McKenzie’s Sanctions Blog published the alert titled OFAC Issues Russian Petroleum-related Determinations, Updates Guidance on Implementation of the Price Cap Policy, and Amends Related General Licenses on 17 February 2023. Read the article via the link here. Please also visit our Sanctions Blog for the most recent updates.

US Customs and Border Protection updated its guidance related to the new Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Region Alert, and announced that it will be deployed in the Automated Commercial Environment on 18 March 2023. The deployment of the UFLPA Region Alert was delayed since it was first announced by CBP in 2022.