The Bureau of Industry and Security has seen a recent spike in completed end-use checks in China after years of dormancy, which has allowed the agency to verify controlled items went to their intended destination, said Matthew Axelrod, top export enforcement official at BIS. Axelrod, speaking during a Senate Banking Committee hearing this week, said the agency has completed more than 90 checks in the last seven months, a stark turnaround from a government in China that hadn’t “scheduled a single end-use check for us in over two years.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security doesn't have a draft rule in place to increase export licensing requirements for Huawei despite rumors this year that new restrictions for the Chinese technology company were imminent, said Thea Kendler, BIS assistant secretary for export administration. Kendler also said the agency has seen a sharp decline in China-related license applications, is spending more time reviewing those applications and is prioritizing reviews of artificial intelligence items, quantum computing technology and biotechnology for new export controls.
The U.S. should convince the U.N. to harmonize its sanctions lists with U.S. trade blacklists, a House Financial Services subcommittee heard during a hearing last week. Aligning the lists could require the World Bank and other international organizations to adhere to U.S. sanctions, one witness said, and help the U.S. extend the reach of its restrictions against China.
The Commerce Department should amend several portions of its proposed guardrails on recipients of Chips Act funding, including measures that could prevent the U.S. chip industry from participating in international standards bodies or inhibit “routine” business activities, trade groups and technology companies said in comments released this week. Some said Commerce should also limit which companies qualify as “foreign entities of concern” and revise the rule’s proposed definition for “legacy semiconductor” to more closely align with export controls.
Republicans leaders this week criticized China's decision to ban certain sales from U.S. chip company Micron (see 2305220053), saying the move was politically driven and lacked evidence.
The U.S. should impose a range of new sanctions and other restrictions on Chinese companies with ties to human rights violations in the Xinjiang region, including by imposing financial sanctions on companies on the Entity List and introducing outbound investment restrictions, the House Select Committee on China said this week. The committee also said the U.S. and its allies need to better coordinate on a potential sanctions response -- and be ready to deploy those measures -- if China invades Taiwan.
The U.S. announced a host of new Russia-related sanctions and export controls last week, including more than 300 sanctions designations by the Treasury and State departments and an expansion of Commerce Department export controls on items destined to Russia and entities supporting the country’s military. The measures, some of which were coordinated with allies as part of the Group of 7 summit in Japan, aim to “further undermine Russia’s capacity to wage its illegal aggression” in Ukraine, the G-7 countries said in a May 19 joint statement.
The U.S. is preparing to roll out a “substantial package” of new sanctions and export controls against Russia for its war in Ukraine, including by adding about 70 new entities to the Commerce Department’s Entity List and introducing more than 300 new financial sanctions against people, entities, vessels and aircraft, a senior administration official said. The measures, which will be coordinated alongside allies as part of the Group of 7 summit in Japan May 19-21, are aimed at closing “loopholes” used by Russia to evade sanctions and “extensively restricting categories of goods key to the battlefield,” the official said during a May 18 call with reporters.
The Bureau of Industry and Security announced a host of new Russia-related export controls, including measures that expand its Russian and Belarusian Industry Sector Sanctions, broaden its foreign direct product rule restrictions and add 71 new entities to the Entity List. Some of the changes, outlined in a 106-page final rule effective May 19, “better align” U.S. export controls with allies, place new export license requirements on additional “industrial items” and chemicals destined to Russia, and impose controls on certain electrical parts destined to Iran for use in unmanned drones. The Entity List changes, also effective May 19, add entities in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Russia for either supporting Russia’s military sector, diverting U.S.-controlled items to Russia or preventing a U.S. end-use check.
A series of export control indictments announced this week, including several for illegal shipments to China and Russia, only scratched the surface of prosecutions expected to be brought as part of the new Disruptive Technology Strike Force, said Matthew Axelrod, the Bureau of Industry and Security's top export enforcement official. “It’s just the beginning,” Axelrod said during a May 17 law conference hosted by the American Bar Association, Mayer Brown and American University. “I think you can expect to continue to see actions come out from the strike force as this work continues.”