Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said June 17 that he expects the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership will demonstrate its worth in the Defense Department’s recently announced review of the security initiative.

Representatives of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission officially began negotiations June 17 on updated foreign direct investment screening rules with the aim of reaching a political agreement on a final text. The talks started days after EU member state representatives finalized their negotiating position (see 2506120057) and a month after the parliament approved the updates (see 2505090020), which would add more sectors to the scope of FDI restriction, allow the European Commission to intervene in member state disagreements and more. The EU didn't provide a timeline for when talks are expected to conclude.

The Census Bureau emailed a tip on how to address the most frequent message generated this month in the Automated Export System. Response code 504 is a fatal error for when the reported license code isn't valid in AES. The license code or license exemption code must be reported for each Electronic Export Information filing, Census said, and valid codes can be found in Appendix F of the License and License Exemption Type Codes and Reporting Guidelines. Filers should verify the license code or license exemption code, correct the shipment and resubmit.

The Council of the European Union on June 16 renewed the sanctions on Russia imposed in response to Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, until June 23, 2026. The restrictions were initially imposed in 2014 and include a ban on the import of products originating from Crimea or Sevastopol and infrastructural or financial investments and tourism services from these areas. In addition, EU parties can't export certain goods to Crimean companies for use in Crimea in the transport, telecommunications and energy sectors or for the exploration and production of oil, gas and mineral resources.

The U.K. on June 17 added four people, six entities and 20 shadow fleet ships to its Russia sanctions regime.

A Bureau of Industry and Security move to adopt a 50% rule for parties on the Entity List would expand the list to cover thousands of new subsidiaries in nearly 100 jurisdictions, risk intelligence firm Kharon said this week. While Russia and China would account for most of the subsidiaries, Kharon said the list could cover hundreds more in the EU, the U.S., the U.K., Singapore, Switzerland, Japan, Canada, Australia and India. "Almost none" of those subsidiaries ever have appeared on a government-run restricted party list, it said.

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A Texas-based industrial equipment supplier and its former CEO were fined millions of dollars for intentionally violating sanctions and export control laws, but the U.S. declined to prosecute its parent company after the firm voluntarily disclosed the violations and cooperated closely with DOJ’s investigation.

Joshua Kurland, a 15-year trial attorney at DOJ, has joined Hogan Lovells as a partner in the international trade and investment practice, the firm announced. At DOJ, Kurland led the government's litigation efforts in many cases in the Commercial Litigation Branch, including over 250 international trade-related cases. From January 2024 to January 2025, he sered as a trial attorney detailed in DOJ's national security division, covering counterintelligence and export control matters.

China is extending its antidumping duty investigation on imports of pork and pork byproducts from the EU (see 2406180009), according to an unofficial translation of a Ministry of Commerce press release. The review was scheduled to be completed by June 17, but China said it's now hoping to finish it by Dec. 16 "in view of the complexity of this case." China announced the investigation last year, days after the EU said it would set new countervailing duties on Chinese electric vehicles (see 2406120008).