The Bureau of Industry and Security’s record-setting enforcement pace over the last several years has raised the agency’s profile and convinced more businesses to invest in compliance, said Matthew Axelrod, the top BIS export enforcement official. But Axelrod said he thinks companies can do more.
Brian Nichols, the State Department’s assistant secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs since 2021, is retiring from the government, the agency announced Dec. 31. Nichols had worked on various sanctions policy issues during his time with the agency, including around Venezuela (see 2312060052), and had vowed during his 2021 confirmation hearing to aggressively sanction human rights violators (see 2105190038).
As the EU looks to revamp its customs system, it should take steps to ensure the changes don't impede international trade, a coalition of trade groups said in a joint statement released Dec. 12.
The Uyghur Human Rights Project said Dec. 30 that it welcomes the five-year extension of two sanctions laws: the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act and the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Russian Judge Olesya Mendeleeva for her involvement in the “arbitrary detention” of Moscow city councilor and human rights advocate Alexei Gorinov, who was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2022 for opposing Russia’s war against Ukraine. OFAC said Mendeleeva is known for giving “long and harsh sentences” and convicted Gorinov of “knowingly disseminating false information about the Russian military," the first judge in Russia to find a defendant guilty for such a charge.
The U.S. this week sanctioned the Cognitive Design Production Center, a subsidiary of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise, an entity tied to the Russian government, for interfering in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The Office of Foreign Assets Control said the Cognitive Design Production Center planned influence operations to “incite socio-political tensions” among the U.S. electors in the lead-up to the elections, and the Center for Geopolitical Expertise helped create and circulate deepfakes and disinformation about candidates in the general election. OFAC also sanctioned Valery Mikhaylovich Korovin, the organization’s director.
The incoming Trump administration should launch a “comprehensive review of supply chain and technology control policies,” including export controls and outbound investment restrictions, to determine whether they’re being used effectively, the Information Technology Industry Council said in a December report. It specifically called on the new administration to examine existing export controls on advanced semiconductors and equipment along with “technology transaction reviews on AI and quantum” to make sure they’re “bolstering national security.”
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Ocean carriers must begin filing annual export strategies and policies with the Federal Maritime Commission starting March 1 as part of a broader effort by the FMC to better regulate carriers that unfairly refuse vessel or cargo space to exporters.
The Automated Export System on Jan. 1 will begin rejecting filings of shipments controlled under U.S. Munitions List Category XXI if they don’t include a valid State Department commodity jurisdiction determination number, the Census Bureau said this week. Census is also putting in place new AES codes to address a “workaround” used by some exporters to ship Foreign Military Sales (FMS) items that aren’t described on the USML.