The Bureau of Industry and Security completed interagency review of an interim final rule that could make changes to the Commerce Control List for certain cybersecurity items. The rule, received by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in September (see 2109200005) and completed Oct. 14, would build upon a proposed rule published by BIS in 2015 that was intended to gather feedback on new Wassenaar Arrangement controls on some cybersecurity items.
RANCHO MIRAGE, California -- The Commerce Department and CBP will soon deploy a new feature in the Automated Export System to automatically warn filers if they are exporting a controlled item without a license, a BIS official said. The agencies hope to launch the feature -- which should help exporters, freight forwarders and carriers better conduct due diligence -- in the next few months, said Richard Sylvestri, a senior export administration analyst in the Bureau of Industry and Security's Western Regional Office.
A multinational semiconductor company may have violated U.S. export controls when it transacted with two Chinese technology companies on the Entity List, according to its October Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Arteris, which is headquartered in California, said it maintained a business “relationship” with HiSilicon Technologies Co. and Chongxin Bada Technology Development Co., Ltd., which may have resulted in “inadvertent” violations of the Export Administration Regulations. The Bureau of Industry and Security added HiSilicon to the Entity List in 2019 as an affiliate of Huawei (see 1905160072) and added Bada in 2020 (see 2008260038).
The Bureau of Industry and Security fined a U.S.-based telecommunications company $1.87 million for illegally exporting goods to Vietnam, BIS said in an Oct. 12 order. California-based VTA Telecom, a subsidiary of a Vietnamese state-owned telecom company, included false statements in its export applications to hide the true end-uses for the exports, BIS said.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for Oct. 4-8 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The U.S.’s new export restrictions over certain biological equipment software could have a major impact on life science companies, universities and research organizations, and could present significant foreign investment screening hurdles, law firms said. While the restrictions were issued multilaterally and will only seek to stop certain software exports that can be exploited for biological weapons purposes, firms warned that the new restrictions could still be difficult to manage.
The Bureau of Industry and Security should work to raise export enforcement awareness and prioritize deterrence through large penalties, said Matthew Axelrod, President Joe Biden’s nominee to oversee BIS enforcement work. Speaking during his nomination hearing last week, Axelrod highlighted BIS’s yearslong lack of Senate-confirmed leadership in the Office of Export Enforcement and said his background as a federal prosecutor makes him the right fit for the role.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is considering requesting public comments on new export controls for certain brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. The agency sent the pre-rule for interagency review Oct. 5 and said it hopes to determine whether BCI represents an emerging technology important to U.S. national security and whether “effective controls can be implemented.”
The Senate Banking Committee this week approved the nominations for two senior Bureau of Industry and Security officials but reached a tie vote on two other nominees slated to oversee the Treasury Department’s sanctions work.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for Sept. 27-Oct. 1 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.