The Trump administration would be unwise to expand its export controls to cover older-generation semiconductors destined to China, but it could pursue new restrictions over less advanced versions of the tools used to make certain chips, technology policy analysts said in interviews, particularly if it’s willing to be more aggressive than the Biden administration in talks with the Dutch and Japanese.
Jessica Blum Sanchez, a former compliance specialist with the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, is joining Safran Defense & Space as its director of trade compliance, she announced on LinkedIn. She left DDTC in 2017 and most recently worked as the chief compliance officer for HDT Global.
Restrictive trade measures from 20 of the world's leading economies "significantly increased" over the past year, the World Trade Organization found in its 31st Trade Monitoring Report. While the Group of 20 countries also imposed 141 trade facilitating measures, the report said that from October 2023 to October 2024, G20 nations imposed 91 new trade-restrictive measures covering around $828.9 billion worth of goods, up from about $246 billion worth of goods in the last report, which covered restrictions imposed from mid-May to mid-October 2023.
Recent meetings with American lawmakers during a visit to the U.S. gave the impression there is strong bipartisan support for maintaining the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council, a European Parliament member said Nov. 13.
New steel import requirements took effect Nov. 5 under Canada’s Steel Import Monitoring Program, which requires Canadian importers to provide information on the country of melt and pour (COM) of certain steel products at the time of importation (see 2408260042). A notice published last week sets import requirements under Canada’s General Import Permit No. 80 for Carbon Steel and General Import Permit No. 81 for Specialty Steel Products, which will help Canada monitor steel and “facilitate the collection of import data.” Under the program, importers may also be required to give documents or other records to Global Affairs Canada to allow the agency to pinpoint “any errors in import data” and find “the source of any inconsistencies in a targeted manner.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said in a statement Nov. 13 that she expects to become the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee in the next Congress, which begins in January.
A member of the House Financial Services and Foreign Affairs committees urged eight federal financial regulators, including the Treasury Department, to refrain from pushing through new rules in the waning days of the Biden administration.
The U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation this week sanctioned Abdel Rahman Juma Barkalla and Osman Mohamed Hamid Mohamed, two senior officials with the Rapid Support Forces, a militant group in Sudan that has been accused of human rights violations. The designations follow similar sanctions imposed by the U.N. (see 2411120042) and the U.S. (see 2411120006).
The U.K. offered guidance this week about how companies should address a recently announced Russian decree that requires securities held at the country's National Settlement Depository to be transferred to local Russian registrars. The move is an attempt by Russia to evade Western sanctions on its National Settlement Depository, the U.K. said in new FAQ 124, warning British companies that the local Russian registrars may also be captured by sanctions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week issued several new and revised FAQs to provide sanctions guidance to the insurance industry.