Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, both welcomed the Aug. 28 release of a rule from the Bureau of Industry and Security easing licensing requirements for civilian exports to Syria (see 2508280029).

Companies should expect “increased scrutiny, broader sector coverage, and potentially longer review timelines” for investments in Europe due to new and changing foreign direct investment screening regulations, Morgan Lewis said last week in a client alert.

A newly required annual report to Congress on certain dual-use export license applications could cause exporters to be more cautious about seeking those licenses, a trade lawyer said in an interview.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is removing Chinese affiliates of Samsung and SK hynix from its Validated End-User List, making them ineligible for a general authorization that had allowed them to receive certain controlled technology for their Chinese factories.

EU member states need to strengthen customs controls and cooperation, particularly to deal with the "rapid growth of e-commerce," the European Commission said in a new report this week.

The U.K.'s Export Control Joint Unit informed traders that the EU recently expanded its lists of export-controlled goods that can be used for "capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." The move expands the "scope of controlled items in Annexes II and III" of the EU regulation, the U.K. said. The change took effect Aug. 20 and "applies directly to Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework," the agency said, which is a post-Brexit agreement that kept Northern Ireland in the EU single market for goods. "The implications for Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) are under consideration and a further update will be published in due course."

China is renewing its antidumping duties on imports of phenol from the U.S., the EU, South Korea, Japan and Thailand, but it won't renew AD for phenol from the U.K., China’s Ministry of Commerce said Aug. 28, according to an unofficial translation. The duties, which will apply for five years from Aug. 29, range from 244.3% to 287.2% for American companies, are at 30.4% for all EU companies, and range from 12.5% to 23.7% for South Korean companies, from 19.3% to 27% for Japanese companies, and from 10.6% to 28.6% for Thai companies. The ministry said no Chinese company requested that the AD be renewed for the U.K. China said phenol is an “important organic chemical raw material” used in synthetic fibers and for other industrial purposes.

The State Department recently approved three possible military sales -- to Poland, the U.K. and NATO -- worth more than $2 billion combined, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network warned this week about the risks posed to the American financial system by Chinese money laundering networks, urging banks to be “vigilant” in looking out for sanctioned Mexican drug cartels and other designated terrorist groups that may be using those networks.

The U.K. on Aug. 28 amended the chemical weapons-related sanctions listing for Andrei Marchenko, a member of the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The updated entry now includes his middle name, Viktorovich.