The State Department approved a possible $950 million military sale to Brazil, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said May 24. The sale of UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters includes the "initial acquisition of $450 million in Major Defense Equipment," and up to $500 million in "other equipment and services." The principal contractor will be Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky.

The State Department approved a possible $96.4 million military sale to Canada, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said May 21. The sale includes “Joint Direct Attack Munition Tail Kits,” and the principal contractor will be Boeing.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is extending the comment period for an information collection related to a request for appointment of a Technical Advisory Committee. The collection describes the functions and responsibilities of the Commerce Department TACs, which "advise the government on proposed revisions to export control lists, licensing procedures, assessments of the foreign availability of controlled products, and export control regulations.” BIS originally sought feedback on the information collection in February (see 2402080017), and the agency is allowing for another 30 days of comments from after the notice is published on the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website.

The State Department’s Defense Export Control and Compliance System registration and licensing applications will be unavailable to users 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. EDT May 23 for scheduled system maintenance. Users should ensure any work in progress is saved before the downtime period.

The State Department recently approved two potential military sales, to Ukraine and NATO, worth about $250 million combined.

A federal government payment website, Pay.gov, will be offline May 18 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. EDT for "system testing and maintenance," the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls said. The outage will affect users paying their registration fees during this window. Users should direct questions and concerns to pay.gov customer support at 800-624-1373, option 2, or pay.gov.clev@clev.frb.org.

The State Department approved a potential $340.8 million military sale to Romania for “AIM-9X Sidewinder Block II Missiles” and related equipment, the Defense Security Agency said May 14. The principal contractor will be RTX Corp.

PKDC, a Colorado-based furniture distributor, accused ocean carrier CMA CGM of refusing to meet its commitments to the distributor, coercing "extracontractual" payments from PKDC, and charging detention and demurrage for situations outside the distributor's control. The furniture distributor, in a complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission dated May 10, said it paid over $1 million in unreasonable detention and demurrage and that CMA CGM cost it over $12 million by refusing to meet its quantity commitments under the service contract.

International Express Trucking (IXT) accused COSCO Shipping Lines of charging unfair per diem charges during times when there was a chassis shortage, port congestion or a lack of return appointments, the motor carrier said in a complaint filed with the Federal Maritime Commission. In the complaint, dated May 7, IXT said COSCO from 2022 to 2023 charged the motor carrier $75,725 in per diem charges and didn't include relevant information, such as ports of discharge or the date the container had been made available, in the charges.

Two provisions in a February final rule (see 2402230049) from the Federal Maritime Commission -- which set requirements for the information that will soon need to be reported in demurrage and detention invoices -- will take effect along with the rest of the final rule May 28, the commission said in a notice released this week. The FMC had been awaiting approval from the Office of Management and Budget for an information collection request "associated" with those two provisions, and the commission said it received that approval April 16. Those two provisions are: 46 CFR 541.6 and 541.99.