The State Department approved potential military sales to South Korea and Egypt worth about $575 million combined, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Oct. 1. Under the proposed sales, South Korea would get 115 AIM-9X Block II Tactical Sidewinder missiles and related equipment worth about $158 million. The principal contractor will be Raytheon. The sale to Egypt includes Maritime Domain Awareness system and related equipment worth about $417 million. Advanced Technology Systems Company will be the prime contractor.
Two Massachusetts residents and their semiconductor company were charged with stealing proprietary information from another U.S. semiconductor company, the Justice Department said Oct. 1. Husband and wife Haoyang Yu and Yanzhi Chen and their company, Tricon MMIC LLC, allegedly stole hundreds of files belonging to Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI). Yu and Chen face potential prison sentences and fines for their charges, which include smuggling, transporting stolen goods and possession of a trade secret.
A group of human rights lawyers and law professors sued the Trump administration over its sanctions against the International Criminal Court, saying the measures violate freedom of speech laws and the U.S. Constitution. The group said the sanctions (see 2009300003) -- which the administration said are designed to target ICC officials for “harassment” and “abuse” of U.S. government officials (see 2006110028) -- will affect worldwide support for international justice.
Fifty senators, including 42 of 53 Republicans, wrote to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer this week, asking that the administration “begin the formal process of negotiating a comprehensive trade agreement with Taiwan.” The first step of the formal process would be notifying Congress, then soliciting input into negotiating priorities.
The U.S.-Japan mini-deal is not consistent with World Trade Organization rules, a former White House trade negotiator said, so the two sides mentioned a future phase two deal to cover substantially all trade to convince Japan's parliament to pass the accord. Because of the way the deal was structured, with small tariff reductions for Japanese exporters, it did not require a vote in Congress, Clete Willems, speaking recently on a webinar for University of Nebraska students, said. In calling the mini-deal phase one, “I think both sides were playing it cute, to be honest,” Willems, now at Akin Gump, said. He said Japan was not interested in a comprehensive bilateral trade deal, because it still wants the U.S. to rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The United Kingdom added six entries to its Ukraine-related sanctions and revised 330 entries under its ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida sanctions regime, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said in Oct. 2 notices.
The European Union and the United Kingdom on Oct. 2 delisted two leading political figures in Libya. Sanctions were removed from Agila Saleh, speaker of the Tobruk-based House of Representatives, and Nuri Abu Sahmain, former president of the General National Congress of Libya, due to Saleh’s recent “engagement in support of a negotiated political solution” and Sahmain’s absence from the Libyan political process, the EU said. “Delisting is appropriate wherever the criteria for listing are no longer met,” the EU said, “as was the case here.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned eight people for their roles in the illegitimate Belarusian presidential election this summer, OFAC said in an Oct. 2 press release. The designations target Belarus’ Minister of the Interior Yuriy Khadzymuratavich Kareau, Deputy Minister of the Interior Alyaksandr Pyatrovich Barsukou and commander and deputy commander of the Minister of the Interior’s Internal Troops Yuriy Henadzievich Nazaranka and Khazalbek Bakhtsibekavich Atabekau, respectively. OFAC also sanctioned Ivan Uladzimiravich Kubrakou and Dzmitriy Uladzimiravich Balaba, who lead organizations that detain peaceful protestors in Minsk, and Vadzim Dzmitrievich Ipatau and Alena Mikalaeuna Dmukhayla, senior election commission officials. The U.S. sanctions follow similar designations by the United Kingdom and Canada (see 2009300011).
The State Department announced procurement bans and export controls on 11 entities and one person for violating export restrictions imposed by multilateral control groups. The restrictions, said a notice released Oct. 2, apply to entities in China, Russia, Syria, Iraq, Iran, their subsidiaries and one person in China for illegally trading items restricted by multilateral control groups, including the Wassenaar Arrangement and the Australia Group. The order bans U.S. government procurement and government sales to any of the entities or people involving items on the U.S. Munitions List and controlled under the Arms Export Control Act. It also suspends export licenses for items controlled under the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 and the Export Administration Regulations. The order took effect Sept. 23 and will remain in place for two years. It applies to the following entities:
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Oct. 2 announced new export controls (see 2008100013 and 2005190052) on six emerging technologies. The controls, which were agreed to by Wassenaar Arrangement members during its 2019 plenary, include: