The Bureau of Industry and Security is preparing to publish a notice that will officially rescind the AI diffusion export control rule released by the Biden administration in January, according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. BIS sent the notice for interagency review on May 7 (see 2505070039).
The U.K. this week fined a fuel transportation company about $6,600, or 5,000 pounds, for failing to respond to a request for information from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. OFSI said U.K.-registered Svarog Shipping & Trading Company Limited, which does business in the maritime oil shipment sector in Cyprus, didn’t respond in time to OFSI questions last year despite receiving “multiple reminders” about the deadline.
The Treasury Department will create a new fast-track process for certain deals filed with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., the agency announced May 8, saying the process will help encourage more investments in American businesses from close U.S. allies.
Several European think tanks this week launched a new project with an interactive dashboard of graphics and analyses to help industry and governments better monitor the economic and trade relationship between China and Russia. The dashboard includes regularly updated charts and information about key trade between the two countries, including in fossil fuels, dual-use goods and machine tools. The project was created by the Centre for Eastern Studies, the Mercator Institute for China Studies, and the Swedish Institute of International Affairs' Swedish National China Centre and Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies.
The EU should take lessons learned from the “effectively dormant” U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (see 2503280039) and translate those into a new strategy for coordinating export controls and other trade issues with allies, the Paris-based Institut Montaigne think tank said in a report released this month.
China and Belarus held the ninth meeting of their economic and trade working group in Beijing this week, where the two sides applauded their deepening trade ties and vowed to continue expanding opportunities for Chinese companies in Belarus.
Vice President JD Vance, at a Q&A with Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German ambassador to the U.S., said it should be "very, very easy" to talk with officials at the EU about the bloc lowering its regulatory barriers to trade and its approach to U.S. tech giants.
DOJ’s recent decision to decline to prosecute a NASA contractor for export control violations shows that the agency is still planning to reward companies that self-report possible breaches and cooperate with the government, WilmerHale said in a client alert this week.
Six Senate Democrats -- led by Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire -- urged the Trump administration May 5 to increase sanctions on Russia to pressure Moscow to end its war on Ukraine.
All 24 members of the House Select Committee on China urged the Trump administration May 6 to consider adding Chinese robotics company Unitree to the Bureau of Industry and Security's Entity List and the Pentagon's Section 1260H list of Chinese military companies.