The U.S. this week announced a spate of new Russia-related sanctions and export controls, targeting people and companies supplying Russia’s military, aiding its defense industrial complex or operating in various Russian financial, metals, government and procurement sectors. The measures include additions to the Commerce Department’s Entity List and more than 200 combined sanctions by the Treasury and State departments targeting businesses in China, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere for sending export-controlled components to Russia.
The U.S. this week unsealed two indictments charging multiple people in schemes to deliver export-controlled dual-use goods to Russia. In both cases, DOJ charged Russian nationals and others with using Brooklyn-based companies to buy goods on behalf of sanctioned end-users or others connected to Russia's military.
A new executive order on artificial intelligence signed by President Joe Biden this week doesn’t explicitly mention export controls or other trade restrictions, but it does outline the administration's goal of working with other countries to protect against dangerous uses of AI and maintaining U.S. leadership in the technology. The Commerce Department also said the Bureau of Industry and Security, as well as other agency offices, will "be responsible for carrying out a significant portion of the EO’s objectives."
A Commerce Department decision last week to suspend new export licenses for certain firearms, parts and ammunition caught the industry by surprise and has caused confusion about what types of shipments will be impacted. The announcement came after an uptick in license processing times in recent months, an industry lawyer said, and could lead to a surge in purchases of U.S. firearms by foreign customers that fear the suspension could be a harbinger of permanent change.
The State and Commerce departments are frequently seeing illegal exports of controlled items, including technical data, by companies that aren’t classifying their products correctly and may not realize they need a license.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Oct. 27 announced an immediate 90-day suspension of new export licenses for certain firearms, components and ammunition while it reviews its firearms policies to determine whether any permanent changes are “warranted.” During the next 90 days, the agency said it will not issue any new licenses for those exports to non-government end users worldwide, apart from Ukraine, Israel or a nation listed in Country Group A:1.
The Commerce Department should add China-affiliated public security bureaus and others to the Entity List for their involvement in a “mass DNA collection project” in Tibet, chairs of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China said in a letter this month to the Biden administration. They said Chinese officials in Tibet have likely purchased DNA kits and replacement parts from American biotechnology company Thermo Fisher Scientific and are using those products for “political identification,” racial profiling and other “egregious” human rights abuses.
The U.S. should "lift" its newest semiconductor export controls on China "as soon as possible," China's Ministry of Commerce said Oct. 18, according to an unofficial translation. The ministry said the moves abuse export control measures, "generalize the concept of national security" and are "unilateral bullying." The country "will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests." The new controls were announced in two rules by the Bureau of Industry and Security this week (see 2310170055).
The Commerce Department’s long-awaited routed export rule continues to face delays due to a lack of agency resources and attention, said Gerry Horner, chief of the Census Bureau’s Trade Regulations Branch. Horner said both Census and the Bureau of Industry and Security currently “just don't have the resources” to make progress on the effort.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week released a range of updates to its Oct. 7, 2022, China chip controls, unveiling two rules that will impose new license requirements on additional chips and chipmaking tools, make revisions to its U.S. persons restrictions, expand licensing requirements for exports of certain chipmaking items to U.S. arms-embargoed countries, create a new notification requirement and introduce other measures to address export control circumvention risks.