The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls on Nov. 29 released its notifications to Congress of recently proposed export licenses. The July through September notices feature arms sales to numerous countries, including Canada, Italy, Qatar, the U.K. and the United Arab Emirates.

The Federal Maritime Commission issued a draft “Finding of No Significant Impact” for its recent proposed demurrage and detention billing requirements (see 2210070079), the agency said in a notice released last week. The finding will become final within 10 days of the notice’s publication in the Federal Register "unless a petition for review is filed," the FMC said. Petitions for review must be submitted on or before Dec. 9.

USDA will be joined by officials from more than 30 agricultural businesses and farm organizations on a trade mission to Madrid, Nov. 29 through Dec. 2, the agency said last week. The mission will connect U.S. exporters with Spanish customers in a bid to "provide a boost to the agriculture industry back at home,” said Clay Hamilton, an official with USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service. The agency said Spain is the EU's third-largest destination for U.S. agricultural exports and is a "major gateway" for exports to the rest of Europe.

The State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls recently posted a name change notice for Ultra Electronics Limited and waived the requirement for amendments to change approved license authorizations because of the “volume” of authorizations requiring amendments to reflect the change, DDTC said. Ultra Electronics Limited was changed to Ultra PMES Limited and Ultra Cyber Limited under a restructuring. New license applications received after Dec. 21 that identify the old name “will be considered for return without action for correction.”

Hong Kong confirmed that calcium carbonate is permitted for use as a food-coloring additive for goods from the U.S., USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a recent report. USDA said it had asked Hong Kong for clarification on the issue because Hong Kong’s positive list of chemicals under its food regulations doesn't “explicitly” list calcium carbonate. USDA said this “welcomed decision” was recently posted by the Hong Kong Center for Food Safety on its website.

The Treasury Department is seeking public comments on an information collection involving the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.’s expanded jurisdiction under the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018. FIRRMA expanded CFIUS jurisdiction to allow it to review certain non-controlling foreign investments, certain real estate transactions involving foreign parties and more. Comments on the collection are due by Dec. 27.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on an information collection involving the procedure for entities on the Unverified List or Entity List to request removal or “modification” of their placement on either list. Public comments on the collection are due Jan. 24.

Defense Security Cooperation Agency recently published a new policy memo on certain foreign military sales cases with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Supply and Procurement Agency. The memo “provides updated, temporary guidance” for certain FMS sales to NATO.

The Commerce Department is accepting nominations for its Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness, it said. Commerce "seeks members who, by virtue of their current roles and past experience, bring a track record of effective senior executive leadership on issues impacting the U.S. and global supply chains," the agency said. Applications will be accepted until Dec. 8. Commerce is seeking members for the current two-year term, which ends Nov. 9, 2023.

MSC, one of the world’s leading container shipping lines, denied allegations made by a logistics company that it violated the Shipping Act, saying this week that the company’s October complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission (see 2210260029) was “so vague and ambiguous as to make it impractical” to “submit a reasonable answer.” MSC said it didn’t fail to provide adequate time to return containers for U.S.-based MVM Logistics and denied a host of other allegations by the company, including that it committed unfair shipping and handling practices that MVM said left it with $800,000 in fines.