The State Department approved a possible $39 million military sale to Japan, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Jan. 15. The sale includes "Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles with Extended Range" and related equipment. The principal contractor will be Lockheed Martin.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Jan. 15 that he hopes to elevate the State Department’s role in foreign policy-making if the Senate approves his nomination to lead the agency.

The State Department approved a possible $100 million military sale to Zambia, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Jan. 13. The sale includes "Bell 412 Enhanced Performance Exportable Medium-Lift Transport Helicopters" and related elements of logistics and program support. The principal contractor will be Bell Textron.

DOJ last week released the fourth and final part in a series of reports on criminal gun trafficking, part of an effort by the Biden administration to collect and analyze more data to prevent the illegal movement of firearms. The report, published by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, said there was a 298% increase in the total number of regulated firearms and weapons exported annually from 2000 to 2022, followed by a 21% decrease in those same shipments between 2022 and 2023. It added that 4,317 “recovered crime guns” were traced to legal exports in 2023, more than in any year since 2020. It also said two of the most frequently exported firearms have been pistols and machine guns.

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls said its Response Team and Help Desk will be closed Jan. 9 along with the rest of the federal government in observance of the national day of mourning for President Jimmy Carter. They will reopen at 8 a.m. on Jan. 10, DDTC said. “Due to the closure and depending on volume of inquires received, responses to support requests and processing of classified provisos for delivery may be delayed,” it said.

The State Department approved a possible $78.5 million military sale to Saudi Arabia, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said last week. The sale includes "MK 54 MOD 0 Lightweight Torpedoes and related elements of logistics and program support"; the principal contractor will be RTX Integrated Defense Systems.

The Pentagon this week posted its annual list of companies that it says have ties to China’s military. The 2021 National Defense Authorization Act requires the agency to publish the full 1260H List each year until Dec. 31, 2030. Companies on the list face certain U.S. government contract restrictions.

The State Department approved a possible $3.64 billion military sale to Japan, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said last week. The sale includes "AIM-120D-3 and AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles" and related equipment; the principal contractor will be RTX Corp.

Indonesia soon will impose a new 12% luxury goods sales tax on imported products intended for “high-end Indonesian consumers,” including certain premium beef, pork, fruit, seafood and specialty rice, USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said Jan. 2. USDA said those products historically haven’t been subject to any value-added taxes, adding that the new measure is expected to have a “significant impact on [the] above-mentioned U.S. agricultural exports to Indonesia.”

The U.S. government stressed that it plans to continue an ongoing legal battle to enforce the beneficial ownership information reporting requirements in the Corporate Transparency Act, which a federal court paused last month under a nationwide injunction (see 2412270046 and 2412300031)