New guidance from the Biden administration this week warned shippers, forwarders, brokers, ship owners and others involved in maritime and other transportation industries to better know their cargo, saying they each have a “responsibility” to craft their own “rigorous” compliance programs. The 10-page sanctions advisory specifically calls out freight forwarders, saying they play a “key role” in compliant supply chains.
Four House Democrats introduced a bill aimed at curbing the flow of U.S. firearms to drug cartels, gangs and other violent groups in the Caribbean and Latin America.
U.S. export controls will slow China’s innovation efforts, but they'll never “stop” the country from advancing technologically, Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security needs to overhaul its export control policies to stem the flow of U.S. national security technology that is fueling China’s military modernization, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in a report marking the end of a 90-day review of the agency (see 2210030068).
Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez called this week for more funding from Congress, suggesting BIS may need a substantially increased annual budget to more effectively implement and enforce export controls against China and other countries.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week released a host of export control changes designed to ease license requirements and expand license exceptions for certain exports of pathogens and toxins, crime-control goods and missile technology items to U.S. allies. The agency also proposed changes to License Exception Strategic Trade Authorization (STA) to try to convince more exporters to use the exception.
The Bureau of Industry and Security’s recent 90-day pause in issuing commercial firearms export licenses will financially harm companies, especially small ones, that rely on foreign sales for income, according to a letter five Republican members of the House Small Business Committee sent to BIS.
Three days after Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo suggested her Bureau of Industry and Security needs more funding to handle a surge in export licensing requests (see 2312040041), three key House Republicans said on Dec. 5 that BIS must strengthen its export controls before they will support a budget increase for the agency.
The U.S. charged Belgian national Hans Maria De Geetere this week in two separate indictments for allegedly helping to illegally export "military-grade technology" from the U.S. to end-users in China and Russia, DOJ said. The agency said the business owner tried to procure more than $2 million worth of illegal exports from undercover government agents, and told one Commerce Department agent that a shipment was destined for Belgium when it was actually meant for Hong Kong.
Four Republican senators have called on the Commerce Department to reverse its decision to remove China’s Institute of Forensic Science from the Entity List, saying the easing of trade sanctions on the scientific lab was premature.