The Bureau of Industry and Security is drafting a final rule that would make certain changes to U.S. export controls based on recent decisions made at the multilateral Australia Group. BIS sent the rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Nov. 22.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is renewing a December change to the U.S. Munitions List that allowed U.S. manufacturers to apply for export licenses to participate in development of the KF-21 aircraft “without removing those defense articles from the USML simply because they are used in the KF-21” (see 2312010010). The revision, which was scheduled to expire Dec. 1, will now last through Dec. 1, 2026, or “when terminated by the Department, whichever occurs first,” DDTC said in a final rule released Nov. 25 and effective Nov. 26.
The Bureau of Industry and Security soon will place new export controls over certain scientific testing and industrial processing equipment destined to Pakistan that had not previously faced license requirements, saying the items have been diverted through Pakistan to companies on the Entity List.
China has been “consistently” building a set of policy tools it can use to retaliate against the U.S. and other countries in response to trade controls or other restrictions, and companies could soon start seeing China deploy those tools more frequently, said David Hathaway, a consultant on China issues for The Asia Group.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control will retire its RSS feed Jan. 31 but continue to provide updates about recent sanctions actions by email, the agency announced Nov. 22. OFAC website users can sign up for email updates here. Technical support questions should be sent to O_F_A_C@treasury.gov.
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said Nov. 20 that the Biden administration should sanction the Myanma Economic Bank, which serves the country’s oppressive military junta. He cited a news report indicating that dozens of Myanmar civil society groups have urged the State and Treasury departments to sanction the bank. Sanctioning the bank would be a "pivotal next step to implementing" his Burma Unified Through Rigorous Military Accountability Act, or BURMA Act, which was signed into law in December 2022, he said.
The EU is expecting European parent companies working in certain sensitive sectors to take “substantial actions” to make sure their non-EU subsidiaries aren’t helping Russia or Belarus evade sanctions, regardless of the size of the parent company, the EU said in new guidance.
An Indian national violated U.S. export controls by lying on at least one export application for dual-use aerospace technology, telling the government the item would be exported to India when he actually planned to send it to Russia, according to a DOJ indictment unsealed last week and the sworn affidavit of a Bureau of Industry and Security special agent.
The U.K. Office of Foreign Sanctions Implementation provided an overview of "red flags" that may indicate when Russian oil shipments have been "manipulated to appear as non-Russian through the use of fabricated or falsified certificates of origin." The guidance also lays out "potential mitigation measures" to help British entities shield themselves from the practice.
Several Republican lawmakers called for sanctioning International Criminal Court (ICC) officials after the ICC issued arrest warrants Nov. 21 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the war in Gaza.