A federal government payment website, Pay.gov, will be offline Nov. 4 from 6 p.m to midnight EST 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 Bureau of Industry and Security is preparing to revamp its website, said Tirrell McKnight, an official with the BIS western regional office. She said the site is in "beta evaluation" and could be launched as soon as January. "We have heard from you all that it's cumbersome and it's dated," McKnight said Oct. 28 during the Pacific Coast Council's Western Cargo Conference, known as Wesccon. "Look for an upgrade to our website relatively soon."

A new executive order on artificial intelligence signed by President Joe Biden this week doesn’t explicitly mention export controls or other trade restrictions, but it does outline the administration's goal of working with other countries to protect against dangerous uses of AI and maintaining U.S. leadership in the technology. The Commerce Department also said the Bureau of Industry and Security, as well as other agency offices, will "be responsible for carrying out a significant portion of the EO’s objectives."

The Defense Department is expecting to see a continued uptick in the value and number of foreign military sales (FMS) cases this year, part of a trend caused by increased global demand for weapons systems, said James Hursch, director of the agency’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency. He said the U.S. had "over $50 billion" in FMS sales last year, which was a “considerable increase over the previous year,” and that trend should continue.

The State Department approved two potential military sales, one each to Japan and Latvia, worth nearly $300 million combined, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Oct. 24. The sale to Japan includes $74.6 million worth of “Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAM) Block 2B Tactical Missiles” and related equipment, and the principal contractor will be Raytheon Missiles and Defense. Latvia will get $220 million worth of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and related equipment, and the principal contractor will be Lockheed Martin.

The State Department approved three potential military sales, to Finland, Lithuania and the U.K., worth more than $1.5 billion combined, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Oct. 23.

The U.S. and the EU this month extended the U.S.-EU Science and Technology Agreement for five years, the State Department announced Oct. 23. The agreement, first signed in 1997, has been extended four previous times and helps support research collaboration between the two sides in critical and emerging technologies.

For all the talk of a climate club, where trade among countries inside the club is privileged, panelists at the Niskanen Center said the failure of the U.S. and the EU to reach an agreement on green steel in two years of talking shows how far off that possibility is.

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls last week released the presentation slides from its Defense Trade Advisory Group plenary meeting earlier this month. During the plenary, DTAG members heard updates on DDTC’s effort to revise U.S. Munitions List controls (see 2310120063), suggested ways to expedite license approvals for marketing demonstrations associated with foreign military sales (see 2310130032) and more.

The Bureau of Industry and Security sent a proposed rule for interagency review that could make clarifications and updates to the Defense Priorities and Allocations System Regulation, which is used to prioritize certain defense-related contracts and orders. BIS sent the rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Oct. 17.