The EU released its new economic security doctrine this week (see 2511170007), outlining plans to build on the bloc’s existing trade defense measures and vowing to more aggressively use investment screening, export controls and other tools to protect EU companies.

The U.S. should maintain and strengthen export restrictions on advanced chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment to preserve its edge over China in AI, a panel of experts told lawmakers Dec. 2.

Rebecca Hindt left her role as a senior compliance specialist with the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls to join Collins Aerospace as an associate director for global trade, she announced on LinkedIn last week. She first joined DDTC in 2018.

Richard Cupitt, former senior adviser to the State Department's undersecretary for arms control and international security, left the agency this week after first joining in 2023. Cupitt's work focused on advising the State Department's AUKUS team, particularly on AUKUS Pillar II emerging technology issues -- the pillar aimed at reducing defense trade barriers between the U.S., Australia and the U.K. Cupitt is a part-time senior consultant at the Stimson Center, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The Council of the European Union and the European Parliament struck a provisional deal on the revised Generalized Scheme of Preferences program, which grants EU trade preferences to developing countries. The provisional deal adds "stronger links to respect for human rights and the environment, and a better monitoring and transparency of the scheme," the council said. New conventions regarding human rights and environmental protections will be added to the program, and the proposal provides for an "urgency procedure for the rapid withdrawal of preferences in case of violations of the principles of these conventions," the council said.

The European Parliament released a new study this week about EU sanctions and frozen Russian assets, which examines the legal challenges and possible solutions for using those assets to aid Ukraine. The 108-page paper proposes "viable options for the use of these three asset types as reparations under EU and international law" and argues that the most likely path involves a reparations loan to Ukraine.

House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks, R-N.Y., and Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., who chairs the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, introduced a bill Dec. 1 that would require the president to sanction foreign entities, individuals and vessels that engage in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, introduced a bill Nov. 25 that would authorize the president to sanction foreign agencies, entities and individuals who launch cyberattacks against critical U.S. infrastructure.

The Senate Appropriations Committee unveiled an FY 2026 financial services and general government appropriations bill Nov. 24 that would fully fund the Trump administration’s request for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

There's concern that Russia-related sanctions coordination among allies could “unravel,” especially as the Trump administration pursues its Russia-Ukraine peace strategy, the U.K. Parliament said in a research briefing last week.