The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on the impact of the Chemical Weapons Convention on commercial activities during 2024. The agency is specifically looking for feedback on how those activities involving Schedule 1 chemicals were affected to determine whether CWC decisions "harmed" the “legitimate commercial activities and interests of chemical, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical firms” this year. Comments are due by Jan. 8.
Nearly half of U.S. companies surveyed by the Bureau of Industry and Security this year said they didn’t know whether their products contained any Chinese-made, mature-node semiconductors, BIS said in a summary of those survey results released Dec. 6.
A federal court in Texas on Dec. 3 preliminarily enjoined the government from enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act's (CTA) beneficial ownership information reporting requirements, finding that the law violates various elements of the U.S. Constitution. Judge Amons Mazzant found that the CTA "intrudes upon States' rights under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments," compels speech and harms the right of association under the First Amendment and violates the Fourth Amendment by "compelling disclosure of private information."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Dec. 6 upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which bans the social media application TikTok in the U.S. or forces its parent company, Chinese tech giant ByteDance, to divest its ownership share in the application in the U.S. Judges Douglas Ginsburg, Sri Srinivasan and Neomi Rao said the ban survived constitutional scrutiny (TikTok Inc. and ByteDance Ltd. v. Merrick Garland, D.D.C. # 24-1113).
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the U.N. Security Council Dec. 6 to expand the arms embargo on Sudan’s Darfur region to cover all of the war-torn country. “While I am grateful the Security Council recently unanimously decided to extend the embargo until September 2025, combatants on both sides of the conflict continue to receive a steady flow of weapons and ammunition from all corners of the country,” Murphy said. The warring parties then “use these weapons to continue their brutal campaigns and terrorize innocent civilians.” Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., made a similar recommendation in November (see 2411250026).
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, and eight other committee Republicans urged the Biden administration Dec. 5 to step up implementation and enforcement of sanctions on Iran’s oil sector to deprive Tehran of funding for terrorism and nuclear weapons development.
Western countries should impose additional sanctions on Belarus for supplying Russia’s war machine, helping Moscow evade sanctions and indoctrinating Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, three witnesses told the congressionally led U.S. Helsinki Commission Dec. 5.
The EU and four members of a trading bloc of South American nations referred to as Mercosur -- Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay -- concluded a partnership agreement, which will "boost strategic trade and political ties" between the nations, the European Commission announced. Bolivia just became a member of Mercosur on July 8.
The U.K. on Dec. 6 corrected a sanctions listing it made earlier in the week related to domestic counterterrorism efforts (see 2412030021). The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation listed Brian Sheridan under suspicions that he was providing financial assistance to members of the New Irish Republican Army. OFSI updated his listing to note that he has a U.K. passport.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week issued another reminder for users of its website to fill out a survey (see 2410110053) that will give OFAC feedback on how it can streamline the site’s navigation and improve its “sanctions guidance, resource accessibility, and user experience.” The survey closes Dec. 30.