Beijing this week announced a host of new export license requirements for shipments of rare earths, superhard materials and related equipment, including new rules to restrict overseas exports if they contain certain levels of Chinese-origin materials. The country’s Ministry of Commerce also added more than a dozen companies to its Unreliable Entity List for arms sales to Taiwan or for other actions that it said hurt Chinese companies or the country’s “sovereignty” or security.
The U.S. will soon impose a 100% tariff on China, “over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying,” along with new export controls on “any and all critical software,” President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social. Trump said the measures, which could take effect Nov. 1 or sooner, are in response to China’s recent announcement that it will impose new export license requirements on overseas exports if they contain certain levels of Chinese-origin material.
Matthew Napoli was sworn in Oct. 3 as the deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation at the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration, he announced on LinkedIn. The National Nuclear Security Administration oversees certain export controls over nuclear-related items and works to strengthen "nonproliferation and arms control regimes to prevent proliferation, ensure peaceful nuclear uses, and enable verifiable nuclear reductions and limitations on nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons," according to its website.
The European Commission recently launched a new platform called the Responsible Mineral Information System, or ReMIS, to "increase transparency" in mineral supply chains. The voluntary system lets "economic operators" register and share their "due diligence policies and initiatives to ensure responsible sourcing of metals and minerals" and share best practices with the public, the commission said. The commission said it "has no impact on any legal obligations that economic operators may have under EU due diligence legislation."
House Select Committee on China ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., urged the Trump administration Oct. 8 to open new markets for U.S. soybean exports in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said late Oct. 7 that he hopes to have the Senate take up his Russia sanctions and tariff bill by month’s end to send a message to next month’s Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting in Canada.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said late Oct. 7 that the defense export approval process seems to be proceeding normally despite the government shutdown. Risch told Export Compliance Daily that he continues to receive a “constant flow” of arms sale notifications from the executive branch. “It hasn’t been interrupted.”
The Senate voted 51-47 along party lines late Oct. 7 to confirm a group of nominees including David Peters to lead the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Office of Export Enforcement, Thomas DiNanno to be undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, and Jacob Helberg to be undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment.
The U.N. Security Council and the U.K. this week amended listings under their sanctions regimes.
The Bureau of Industry and Security's recently issued FAQs for its new Affiliates Rule (see 2509290017) are “helpful in clarifying the scope” of the rule, but they also leave some “burning” questions unanswered, ArentFox said in a client alert.