The State Department approved two possible military sales, to India and Kuwait, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said this week.
Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Mark Warner, D-Va., said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. should review the potential purchase by a foreign entity of 23andMe, a bankrupt U.S. biotechnology firm that holds sensitive information on millions of people. In an April 28 letter to DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission, the senators commended DOJ for recently recommending such a CFIUS review. The senators are particularly concerned that China could buy 23andMe and use the company's data for “malign” purposes, such as transnational surveillance.
A bill aimed at revitalizing the American maritime sector includes a provision that would require the Commerce and State Departments to study ways to reduce export controls and International Traffic in Arms Regulations on foreign-owned companies that wish to invest in the U.S. shipbuilding industry.
Paul Dabbar, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be deputy commerce secretary, said May 1 that he would support the 1979 international Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft, which calls for eliminating tariffs on civil aircraft, engines, flight simulators and related parts.
The U.K. on May 1 amended one entry under its Russia sanctions regime, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced. OFSI updated the listing of Albert Shigabutdinov to reflect that he's a director of the TAIF Group, a firm operating in the Russian energy, financial services and communications sectors.
China has informed the EU that it has lifted sanctions against certain European Parliament lawmakers, the Parliament said April 30. The sanctions, imposed by Beijing in March 2021, targeted five Parliament members and the body’s Subcommittee on Human Rights. Roberta Metsola, Parliament president, said EU committees “must be able to discuss European interests with their Chinese counterparts without fear of repercussions,” adding that the best way to approach China is “through engagement and dialogue.”
President Donald Trump on May 1 threatened to impose secondary sanctions against any country or person buying "any amount" of oil or petrochemical products from Iran. Those nations or people "will not be allowed to do business with the United States of America in any way, shape, or form," he said on Truth Social. The Treasury Department has published several rounds of sanctions in recent months against people and companies, including shipowners and their vessels, involved in moving or buying Iranian oil (see 2504280013, 2504100048, 2503130021 and 2502240019).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned three people and two entities in Mexico for their ties to a drug trafficking and fuel theft network linked to the Mexico-based Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion. The Treasury Department also published a new alert with red flags that could signal a company is using a U.S. bank as part of a fuel smuggling scheme on the U.S. southwest border.
Companies subject to U.S. investment screening are hoping the Trump administration takes a more predictable approach to reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., including by focusing on purely national security concerns, industry officials said this week.
Egypt opened a safeguard investigation on hot-rolled flat steel on April 22, the country told the World Trade Organization. Egypt's Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade said interested parties should make themselves known within 30 days of April 22.