Wide-ranging talks between U.S. President Barack Obama and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff at the White House last week had business and trade relations between the two countries as a major focus.

The United States and Brazil agreed to exchange lessons learned and best practices as each country develops and deploys their single window systems for international trade. (Single window systems refer to single point of interaction–in the case of the U.S., the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE)–between businesses and authorities for the collection of electronic trade data.) The U.S.-Brazil engagement will be initiated before the end of this year and will support each country’s efforts to use automated and modernized trade processes to facilitate trade.

The talks also touched on progress being made on expanding bilateral beef trade since both countries undertook science-based risk rulemaking in 2013. The United States of Department of Agriculture is amending its regulations to allow the importation of fresh beef from Brazil under conditions that mitigate the risk of foot-and-mouth disease. The U.S. and Brazil are working to ensure that Brazilian meat imported into the United States for human consumption complies with U.S. public health and food safety regulations. Brazil will be taking action to expand U.S. beef access in the near future.

The presidents signed a Social Security Totalization agreement, which eliminates dual Social Security contributions when an employee from one country works in the other. It also closes the gaps in benefit protections for workers who divide their careers between the United States and Brazil. The White House estimated that this agreement will save U.S. and Brazilian companies more than $900 million in the first six years.

The U.S. and Brazil signed a Memorandum of Understanding on promoting entrepreneurship and the growth of micro- and small-sized enterprises. Among other things, the two countries undertook to promote entrepreneurship among women and expand opportunities for women-owned businesses.

The presidents also discussed the implementation of the Sabre passenger service system by LATAM Airlines Group. The deal is supported by a U.S. Trade and Development Agency training grant to Brazil-based TAM Airlines. The LATAM Airlines Group was formed in 2012 by TAM and the Chilean airline LAN, a long-time Sabre customer. TAM’s migration to Sabre represents the largest-ever implementation of a passenger service system by an airline in Latin America.

The talks also touched on cooperation between the two countries on global climate change, human rights, food security, internet governance, national defense, law enforcement, education, energy, and health.

The complicated pricing of natural gas in global markets, with a myriad of long-term and short-term arrangements, sometimes linking gas deals with oil pricing, together with the dynamic demand picture for natural gas and the robust build-out globally of liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure all combine to make Turkey the prime target for U.S. LNG exports.

That was one of the conclusions reached in a recently-released white paper from Energy Mining Advisory Partnership (EMAP) of London.

Technological advancements, allowing developers to extract natural gas from shale, have resulted in a 50-percent increase in reserves and a 34-percent increase in natural gas production in the U.S. over the last decade. This increased production reduced the price of natural gas in the U.S. to one-third of European levels and one-quarter of Japanese levels, creating “a compelling commercial logic for exporting natural gas from U.S.”

Five new LNG facilities, in Texas, Louisiana, and Maryland, are currently under construction in the U.S. and are scheduled to come on line in the next three years. Dozens more are on the drawing boards.

EMAP found that U.S. exports could be “marginally competitive for terminals in Spain and the UK” but “not commercially viable for other European terminals at current prices.” With higher transportation costs and longer transit times, exporting to Asia would not be viable unless and until the price of oil rebounded to $75 per barrel, according to the report.

But Turkey is a different story. Turkey has experienced the fastest growth in energy demand of

the OECD countries over the last three years. Domestic production fills less than 10 percent of Turkey’s energy demand. The country’s energy mix has moved strongly towards natural gas, overtaking oil consumption in 2012.

Turkey currently receives gas from Russia and Iran by pipeline under long-term contracts at relatively high prices. Additionally, Turkey’s commercial relations with those two countries are strained due to the penalties it has had to pay under its onerous contracts. Turkey could buy U.S. natural has at prices 40 percent lower than what it currently pays to Russia and Iran.

With Turkey’s deals with Russia and Iran up for renewal in 2021, U.S. LNG exports could help Turkey negotiate better deals with Iran and Russia, the EMAP report noted. To make it all happen, however, Turkey would have to increase the capacity of its LNG terminals.

The U.S. Departments of State and Commerce proposed earlier this month new rules to transfer certain items from more restrictive to less restrictive export control lists. The proposed rules are part of President Obama’s broader export control reform effort designed to streamline the U.S. export control system.

The transitioned items will be eligible for greater license exceptions, which will allow for the export and re-export of those items without the need for export licenses or other government authorization.

The lists affected include the U.S. Munitions List (USML) Category XIV—which covers chemical agents, biological agents, and associated equipment—and Category XVIII—which covers directed energy weapons. Under the proposal, items from Category XIV—primarily dissemination, detection and protection equipment—and and from Category XVIII—tooling, production equipment, test and evaluation equipment, and test models—will be transferred to the less restrictive Commerce Control List (CCL).

The proposed rule would also revise USML Categories XIV and XVIII to more precisely describe the items still controlled by the USML. Items no longer controlled in the revised USML will be transferred to new Export Control Classification Numbers on the CCL.

Experts say that once implemented, the rules will change affected companies’ export compliance responsibilities as well as their perspectives on global markets and international product development efforts.

The U.S. and Cuba announced today the reopening of embassies in Washington and Havana for the first time in more than 50 years, marking a significant step in the renewal of diplomatic ties that began last December with an announcement from President Barack Obama.

But U.S. traders champing at the bit to enter the Cuban market will have to wait until Congress lifts the trade embargo that has been in place for over five decades. While such legislation has been introduced, Congress has yet to act on the measure.

“The acceptance of diplomatic credentials of the new ambassadors to the United States and Cuba will represent an historic return to formal diplomatic relations between the two countries,” said Paul Virtue, a partner in the law firm of Mayer Brown LLP and former general counsel of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. “But it will not have an immediate impact on the U.S. economic embargo on Cuban goods or the U.S. sanctions and export control regulations that were eased in January 2015 following the president’s announcement.

The biggest change coming with the opening of the embassies, Virtue added, is that U.S. and Cuban affairs will be handled directly and no longer through interests sections of the Swiss embassies in Havana and Washington.

The lifting of the embargo must come through an act of Congress. Such a bill has been introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) but it has yet to be taken up by the Republican-controlled Senate Banking Committee. The bill faces opposition from both sides of the aisle, especially from members of Congress close to Cuban-American constituencies.

All of the announced Republican candidates for president, other then Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), oppose lifting the embargo. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) has also been vocal in his opposition to the measure.