26-0720: Monday's "Export/Import Daily Bugle"

1. Commerce/USCS/ITA Will Increase User Fees July 22, 2026

(Source: 91 FR 37077, 22 Jun 2026 - reprinted)

* AGENCY: U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service, International Trade Administration (ITA), Department of Commerce

* ACTION: Notice of implementation of fee revisions.

* SUMMARY: ITA is increasing user fees for its export and investment promotion services/events. These changes would be revisions to ITA's export and investment promotion User Fee Schedule published July 1, 2018.

* DATE: New fees effective July 22, 2026.

2. Future Federal Register (No items of interest.)

(Source: Future Federal Register)

3. CBP Cargo Systems Messages (No new items.)

(Source: DHS/CBP/CSMS)

4. CBP Events in July and August 2026

(Source: OTR Webinars)

5. Commerce/BIS (Nothing new.)

(Source: Commerce/BIS)

6. State/DDTC (Nothing new.)

(Source: State/DDTC)

7. Treasury/OFAC Updates SDN and Blocked Persons List

(Source: Treasury/OFAC 19 Jul 2026)

OFAC has updated the SDN list. Visit this page to access the latest version of the SDN list. Visit this link for more information.

8. White House Executive Actions (No items of interest.)

(Source: The White House)

9. CiberCuba: "U.S. Customs Seizes Items from Travelers Coming from Cuba"

(Source: CiberCuba News, 17 Jul 2026) [Excerpts]

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confiscated coral fragments and queen conch shells from passengers arriving at Jacksonville airport from Cuba on Saturday, and transferred the items to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) because they are protected species under international law.
     The CBP Field Operations Office in Florida posted images of the seizure on X along with a direct message: "We love seashells, but it is illegal to import or export wildlife without a permit, and all these items confiscated from passengers arriving in Jacksonville from Cuba are protected under international law."
     Among the seized objects, fragments of coral and several conchs of the queen conch species, scientifically known as Aliger gigas, previously classified as Strombus gigas, can be observed. CBP did not publicly specify the quantity, dimensions, or exact species of the confiscated corals. . . . [Full article]

10. Expeditors News: "CBP Announces New Trade Outreach Webinars"

(Source: Expeditors News, 17 Jul 2026) [Excerpts]

In an update to its Trade Outreach Webinars website, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced several upcoming webinars that are open to the trade community.

The upcoming CBP webinars are:

Registration links and recordings of previous webinars can be found HERE.

11. ST&R Trade Report: "The Week Ahead: Broker Education, Tariffs, Low-Value Shipments, AGOA"

(Source: Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade Report, 19 Jul 2026) [Excerpts]. Contact: [email protected], 1-305-894-1035

Following are highlights of regulatory effective dates and deadlines and other trade-related events coming up in the next week.

12. Baker/McKenzie: "OFAC Targets Iranian Commercial Networks and Issues Iran-Related Wind Down General Licenses"

(Source: Global Sanctions and Export Controls Blog, 17 Jul 2026) [Excerpts]

* Principal Author: Janet K. Kim, philippe Reich; Baker Mckenzie

On July 10, 2026, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") announced a series of Iran-related sanctions designations targeting Iranian financial facilitator Ali Ansari and his financial network, as well as several Iranian exchange houses accused of facilitating transactions for sanctioned Iranian banks.
     Concurrently, OFAC issued General License Y ("GL Y"), authorizing the temporary wind down of transactions involving Smart Global Limited, a newly designated holding company allegedly controlled by Ansari.
     On July 14, 2026, OFAC announced additional designations targeting the shipping and commercial network allegedly controlled by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani ("Shamkhani"), i.e., the son of Ali Shamkhani, a top political advisor to the Supreme Leader of Iran.
     OFAC also issued General License Z On July 10, 2026, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") announced a series of Iran-related sanctions designations targeting Iranian financial facilitator Ali Ansari and his financial network, as well as several Iranian exchange houses accused of facilitating transactions for sanctioned Iranian banks.
     Concurrently, OFAC issued General License Y ("GL Y"), authorizing the temporary wind down of transactions involving Smart Global Limited, a newly designated holding company allegedly controlled by Ansari. . . . [Full article]

13. Braumiller: "CIT Lawsuits and Other Options to Secure CAPE Phase 3 IEEPA Tariff Refunds"

(Source: Braumiller Law Group - email) [Excerpts]

* Author: Mike Smiszek, Braumiller Consulting Group LLC

For importers with finally liquidated entries that are more than 80 days post-liquidation, filing a lawsuit with the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) may offer the quickest path to secure IEEPA tariff refunds for those entries. Importers should discuss filing with CIT, as well as other options to receive CAPE Phase 3 refunds, with counsel to determine the best strategy for their circumstances.
     Last month, CBP appealed CIT's order entitling all importers to IEEPA refunds regardless of whether they formally sought relief through CIT and maintains that CIT can only issue such refunds when importers file with CIT and receive an importer-specific reliquidation order.
     For entries liquidated more than 80 days ago, CBP has stated that once importers file with CIT and receive a reliquidation order they can submit their refund request when CAPE Phase 3 opens in the coming weeks.
     In a July 15th order in Euro-Notions Florida, Inc. v. CBP, Court No. 25-00595, CIT announced that it will enter an order "direct[ing] Customs to reliquidate certain finally liquidated entries." The order will detail the procedure further and "will be entered in each of the approximately 3,700 IEEPA cases assigned to the court." Once plaintiffs follow the procedure outlined in the order, they can submit a CAPE Phase 3 declaration to receive the corresponding IEEPA tariff refunds. . . . [Full advisory]

14. ST&R Trade Report: "EU Forced Labor Ban Portal is Open -- And the Clock is Ticking"

(Source: Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade Report) [Excerpts]. Contact: [email protected], 1-305-894-1035

Forced labor enforcement is not just a U.S. story -- the European Union is moving on it too. The EU's Forced Labor Product Ban Regulation will take effect Dec. 14, 2027, and the European Commission has now opened the Forced Labor Single Portal and issued guidelines to help businesses, regulators, customs authorities, and other stakeholders get ready.
     The rule is broad by design. It bars economic operators from placing on the EU market, making available in the EU, or exporting from the EU any product made, in whole or in part, with forced labor.
     That means all products, all sectors, all company sizes, and all origins are in scope. Components count too. So do supply chain activities anywhere in the world, including extraction, harvesting, production, manufacturing, processing, or related work. Online and distance sales are covered when targeted to EU end-users.
     And the rule has teeth. If a violation is found, the lead competent authority—EU member states for conduct within their territory, and the European Commission for conduct outside the EU—may order withdrawal and disposal of the affected products or parts, including recycling, donation, or destruction. Customs authorities will enforce decisions at the border, and member states will set penalties for non-compliance. . . .
     Two important pieces are still missing. The portal does not yet include the single information submission point, where forced labor concerns about products or companies can be reported, or the risk database identifying forced labor risks by geography, product, or product group. The risk database was legally due by June 14. . . . [Full article]

15. Troutman: "DOJ Open-Case Quotas: Enforcement Expectations and Takeaways"

(Source: Troutman Pepper Locke Insights, 17 Jul 2026)

* Principal Author: Ryan DiSantis, Troutman Pepper Locke LLP

Key Points:

[Full article]

16. Volkov Podcast on Demand: "Due Diligence in the Age of AI: A Conversation with Dan Greenberg"

(Source: Volkov Law, 19 Jul 2026) [Excerpts]

* Principal Author: Michael Volkov, Volkov Law Group LLC

In this episode of Corruption, Crime and Compliance, Michael Volkov sits down with Dan Greenberg, founder of Greenberg Corporate Intelligence, to unpack how due diligence and corporate investigations have evolved over Dan's fifteen-plus years in the field.
     They cover the uneven state of corporate transparency worldwide, from the UK's Companies House registry to persistent secrecy havens in the BVI, Cayman Islands, and even certain U.S. states, and discuss how generative AI now lets fraudsters build convincing fake websites, executive bios, and LinkedIn profiles with minimal effort, raising the bar for investigators who must verify rather than trust what they find online.
     Dan walks through his three-bucket approach to gathering intelligence (traditional public records, advanced open-source and social media analysis, and human sources), and the conversation turns to the unique challenges of investigating counterparties tied to China and Russia, where nuance and thoroughness are essential to avoid overbroad assumptions.
     This episode closes on a practical note for compliance professionals: as supply chain, sanctions, trade, cybersecurity, and AI-vendor risks pile onto traditional FCPA-driven due diligence, resolving red flags and documenting the process remain the non-negotiable foundations of an effective program. [Listen HERE]

17. List of Export/Import Job Openings

(Source: Editor)

19. Bartlett's Unfamiliar Quotations

(Source: Brainy Quotes)

* Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca; 20 Jul 1304 – 18 Jul 1374; was an Italian scholar and poet during the early Italian Renaissance who was one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited with initiating the 14th-century Italian Renaissance and the founding of Renaissance humanism.)

- "Who naught suspects is easily deceived."

- "Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure."

- "Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together."

20. Today in History (Source: History Channel)

64 AD: The Great Fire of Rome began, devastating much of the city during Emperor Nero's reign. Historians generally agree that myth that "Nero fiddled while Rome burned," which appeared many centuries later, is false. The violin and its predecessor, the fiddle, were developed more than a thousand years later in medieval and Renaissance Europe. Tacitus reported that Nero was not even in Rome when the fire began.

1969: Apollo 11 lands on the moon. Today is National Moon Day, commemorating July 20, 1969. On that day, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first one to emerge from the lunar module and step on to the lunar surface. As he did so, he stated "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

21. Do You Need to Update Your Daily Bugle Profile?

(Source: Editor)

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22. Are Your Copies of Export/Import Regulations Current?

(Source: Editor)

The official versions of the following regulations are published annually in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) but are updated as amended in the Federal Register. The latest amendments are listed below.