In their first official statements at the Bureau of Industry and Security, the agency’s two newest export control officials singled out China and Russia and said they plan to prioritize enforcement work involving human rights.
Thea Kendler, President Joe Biden’s choice to be the Bureau of Industry and Security's assistant secretary for export administration, was officially sworn in to her position, BIS said this week. The agency said Kendler will lead Export Administration’s “highly trained technical professionals” in controlling dual-use and military exports, analyzing the impact of those export controls and supporting the U.S. defense industrial base. She also will chair the Advisory Committee on Export Policy, which resolves interagency policy disputes on export license applications submitted to BIS. The Senate confirmed Kendler in December (see 2112150009).
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis recently published its first set of data in an ongoing project to help the U.S. better analyze international trade. The agency released “prototype data on trade in value added,” which it said can help government and industry determine which domestic and imported inputs are most used to create U.S. exports. The data, released in December, can also be used to determine the ways in which U.S. industries contribute to different global value chains, BEA said. The agency said the prototype data represents the “first milestone of this ongoing project,” which it expects will “provide a more complete and nuanced view of U.S. trade to analyze the evolving structure of international trade.'”
The Commerce Department published its fall 2021 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security, including a new mention of an export control rule for crime-control items and a rule that would reorganize provisions of the foreign direct product rule in federal regulations.
Jorge Orencel, owner and operator of Maryland-based export business Sumtech, pleaded guilty on Dec. 17 to attempting to smuggle goods out of the U.S. without the required export license, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland said. Sumtech, under Orencel's leadership. specialized in distributing "high technology laboratory devices," across the globe, but in particular to South America, Asia and the Middle East. Orencel was busted for shipping ionization chambers to Hong Kong, while telling the company he bought the chambers from that he intended to ship the goods to Argentina. Orencel also intentionally undervalued the chambers themselves, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
The Commerce Department should immediately expand an exemption to allow U.S. companies to participate in standards-setting bodies that have members designated on the Entity List, industry representatives said. U.S. firms said they have been forced to avoid the bodies because they fear running afoul of U.S. export laws, a practice that could result in the U.S. losing important influence over the future of emerging technology standards.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control added eight Chinese technology firms to its investment blacklist, including drone maker DJI, for helping the Chinese government track and detain Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. The move, announced Dec. 16, also banned investments in Cloudwalk Technology Co., Dawning Information Industry Co., Leon Technology Company, Megvii Technology, Netposa Technologies, Xiamen Meiya Pico Information Co. and Yitu, all of which are already on the Commerce Department’s Entity List.
The Bureau of Industry and Security added 37 entities to the Entity List, including 34 Chinese research institutes and technology companies, for supporting China’s military modernization efforts or Iran’s weapons program. Other entities added to the list, located in Georgia, Malaysia and Turkey, supplied U.S.-origin items to Iranian defense industries, BIS said.
The Census Bureau will “soon” issue a final decision on whether it will eliminate electronic export information filing requirements for shipments to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, said Omari Wooden, a senior official in the agency’s trade regulation branch. Census is drafting the decision, which it plans to publish in the Federal Register, to offer U.S. exporters closure on the issue, which has been under consideration since at least March 2020 (see 2003100054) and 2009160033) .
Although the Bureau of Industry and Security’s new cybersecurity controls are an improvement over the restrictions proposed in 2015, the agency should still take several steps to ensure they don’t impede U.S. technology companies and inhibit information sharing in the cybersecurity sector, industry said this month. But at least one commenter said BIS should strengthen the controls by restricting a broader set of technologies and require more due diligence steps for exporters.