Joseph Cristofaro left his position as chair of the End-User Review Committee to become the new director of the Bureau of Industry and Security's Sensors and Aviation Division, he announced during a July 18 technical advisory committee meeting. Cristofaro said he started his new role in late May.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week added four European spyware and surveillance technology companies to the Entity List for their role in “threatening” cyber activities. BIS accused all four of “trafficking in cyber exploits used to gain access to information systems, threatening the privacy and security of individuals and organizations worldwide.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security added four spyware companies in Greece, Hungary, Ireland and North Macedonia to the Entity List for their role in cyber activities that threaten the “privacy and security of individuals and organizations worldwide.” The additions, outlined in a final rule effective June 18, impose license requirements for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations. BIS will review license applications under a presumption of denial.
The Commerce Department published its spring 2023 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security and the Census Bureau, including new rules that will add more entities to the Entity List and finalize new export filing requirements.
The House last week voted 219-210 to pass its version of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act with several trade related provisions and amendments, including one amendment that would prohibit “any form of sanctions relief” for the Taliban “unless explicitly authorized by Congress in subsequent legislation.” Another provision would block the Defense Department from entering into a procurement contract with any person or entity that has “business operations” with the Russian government, while another “exhorts” the Defense Department to “commit resources” to make sure “foreign military sales officers in the Department are fully staffed to support the fulsome review and expedient transfer of defense articles” to Australia and the U.K.
Canada launched investigations of Nike Canada and Dynasty Gold this week after receiving complaints that both companies’ supply chains have ties to forced labor in China. A Canadian agency said it’s probing allegations that Nike has “supply relationships” with Chinese companies that use Uyghur forced labor and that Dynasty Gold, a mining company, benefited from Uyghur forced labor at a Chinese mine in which it had a majority stake.
American universities and research labs should make sure they’re screening against a new Defense Department list of Chinese, Russian and Iranian institutions that have “elevated risks,” Crowell & Mooring said in a July 11 client alert. The list, published by DOD June 30, includes more than 45 entities that “have been confirmed as engaging in problematic activity,” including behavior that increases the risk that DOD-funded research could be “misappropriated to the detriment of national or economic security.”
House lawmakers submitted a host of proposed export control- and sanctions-related amendments as part of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, including measures that could ease defense technology sharing restrictions, harmonize the Entity List with certain U.S. sanctions and investment restrictions and place new export control requirements on items destined to China and Iran. Other amendments could lead to new sanctions on Chinese technology companies and government officials, add the USDA to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., establish a new sanctions coordination office in the State Department and more.
Export controls need to be improved following reports that the Chinese spy balloon shot down by the U.S. earlier this year contained American technology, Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said in an emailed statement June 29. The lawmakers cited a Wall Street Journal report that said the spy balloon was “loaded with American-made equipment” that allowed it to collect information.
A Republican-backed bill in the Senate could require the Bureau of Industry and Security to adopt a license review policy of presumption of denial for controlled exports to “any end user” in China or Russia and to notify Congress before approving a license to either country. After notifying Congress, lawmakers would be able to block BIS from granting the license, which will help “create additional safeguards to ensure sensitive technology does not flow to our adversaries,” the bill’s introducers’ press release said.