A new Senate bill could impose sanctions on companies doing business with entities committing human rights abuses against Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region. The Sanctioning Supporters of Slave Labor Act, introduced this week by Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., would impose secondary sanctions on people or entities doing business or providing “support” for entities that have been sanctioned for Uyghur-related human rights abuses, the lawmakers said. They said a companion bill has been introduced in the House.
A bipartisan group of senators last week urged the Commerce Department to add China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies Company to the Entity List, Reuters reported Aug. 1. In a July 28 letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, the senators, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said YMTC is an “immediate threat” to the U.S. and should be subject to strict export licensing requirements. “By failing to add YMTC to the Entity List, the U.S. Department of Commerce is allowing the PRC to exploit our technological sector and supply sanctioned parties in China,” the letter said, according to the report. A Commerce spokesperson said the agency received the letter and will respond. Spokespeople for the lawmakers didn’t immediately comment. The letter came a little more than a week after members of the Senate Banking Committee urged Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez to add YMTC to the Entity List (see 2207150023).
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. this week issued its annual report to Congress, outlining statistics from the first full calendar year in which CFIUS operated under expanded authorities granted to it by the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (see 2002270049 and 2001140060). CFIUS said it received 164 declarations in 2021, an increase from the 126 it received in 2020 2107260017, and 272 notices, up from the 187 from 2020.
Brian Fleming, a former official in the National Security Division at DOJ, has joined Steptoe & Johnson as a partner in the International Trade and Regulatory Compliance Group, the firm announced. Fleming most recently worked as a member at Miller & Chevalier Chartered, advising clients on economic sanctions, export controls and Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States proceedings.
In a new report, "Implementing the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies: Challenges and Opportunities for Developing and Least-Developed Country Members," the World Trade Organization lays out a summary of the agreement, what it means for developing countries, and efforts taken to provide development finance to the fisheries sector in developing member countries.
Senate Finance Committee members praised the experience of Doug McKalip, the administration's nominee to be chief agricultural negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. McKalip, a senior adviser on international trade policy and other matters to the agriculture secretary, is a career staffer at USDA.
The U.S. is stepping up efforts to boost liquefied natural gas exports to Europe as the Russia-Ukraine war drags on, Jose Fernandez, a senior State Department official, said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing this week. He said he recently met with several European countries that are asking to buy more U.S. LNG.
Two technical committees that advise the Bureau of Industry and Security plan to work together on a proposal to create a "trusted exporter" program, similar to the trusted trader program for importers. Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee Co-Chair Jennifer O'Bryan said during a July 26 quarterly meeting of SINTAC that the Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee wants to work on such a proposal.
Tunisia on July 19 kicked off a safeguard investigation on iron or non-alloy steel wires for the manufacture of furniture springs, the World Trade Organization announced July 21. Tunisia notified the WTO's Committee on Safeguards of its investigation. Interested parties can submit their views on the conduct of the investigation to Tunisia's Trade Ministry within 45 days from the publication of the notice of initiation in the Official Journal of the Republic of Tunisia.
The Commerce Department is prioritizing work to strengthen its export controls and investment restrictions, particularly with allies, Commerce Deputy Secretary Don Graves said, speaking during a July 25 event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He said the U.S. is continuing to rethink the existing multilateral control regimes and believes the global sanctions response to Russia has set a precedent for how democracies could respond to similar aggression by other countries in the future.