Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., urged the Commerce Department on Oct. 30 to support Malaysia’s new efforts to prevent the country from being used to smuggle export-controlled U.S. chips to China.

U.N. member states last week voted 165-7, with 12 abstentions, to approve a resolution aimed at urging the U.S. to end its trade embargo against Cuba. The resolution, which has been adopted for 33 consecutive years, called on the U.S. to end the "economic, commercial and financial embargo" on the island country. The U.S., Israel, Argentina, Hungary, Paraguay, North Macedonia and Ukraine voted against the measure, while Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Czechia, Ecuador, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Moldova and Romania abstained.

The EU last week updated its guidance regarding the list of partner countries for which importers of petroleum products don’t need to provide customs evidence for the origin of the crude oil to prove it’s not from Russia. The FAQs on pages 2 and 3, updated Oct. 29, include the list of countries that “benefit” from this presumption for crude oil exports during calendar year 2024.

A group of 18 national security experts, including several former government officials, urged Congress Oct. 30 to pass legislation that would restrict U.S. sales of advanced AI chips to China and other arms-embargoed countries if there's unmet demand from American firms.

The U.S. decision to suspend the Bureau of Industry and Security's 50% rule was met with both relief and exasperation by U.S. exporters, some of whom welcomed more time to prepare while also expressing frustration with the time and resources they already spent trying to comply, including buying expensive screening software.

The U.S. will suspend the Bureau of Industry and Security's 50% rule, known as the Affiliates Rule, for one year starting Nov. 10, the White House said in a fact sheet released Nov. 1. The supension was negotiated during trade talks between U.S. and Chinese officials this past week.

Kuang Chiang, a former licensing officer at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, has joined Morrison Foerster as of counsel in its national security group, the firm announced this week. Most recently, Chiang was counsel at A&O Shearman, where she worked for more than eight years. Chiang served as a licensing officer at OFAC during 2009-2012.

Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., said Oct. 30 that she intends to work with the Trump administration, including the State and Treasury departments, to ensure that the U.N. fully carries out plans to reimpose "snapback” sanctions on Iran.

Several lawmakers offered a mix of praise and skepticism Oct. 30 when asked to assess the new U.S. trade deal with China.

Reps. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the House Select Committee on China, announced Oct. 30 that they're introducing a companion to a Senate bill that would require U.S. manufacturers of advanced AI chips to make their products available to American firms before selling them to China and other "countries of concern."