The Commerce and State departments are extending the public comment periods for one interim final rule and two proposed rules that are expected to revise U.S. export controls to remove a range of export barriers faced by the commercial space industry (see 2410180027 and 2411070024). Comments on all three rules originally were due Nov. 22, but the agencies said they are extending that deadline to Dec. 23 after the “regulated community” asked for more time.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, who is expected to ascend to the committee’s chairmanship when Republicans take control of the Senate in January (see 2411120060), said he views China as the panel’s biggest challenge.
The next Trump administration is likely to build on Biden’s outbound investment executive order and semiconductor export controls against China, researchers said last week, and could double down on sanctions against Iran and Venezuela in a return to the “maximum pressure” campaign Trump embraced during his first term.
A New York City-based electronics store was fined $5.4 million by CBP and ordered to forfeit more than $460,000 after it allegedly gave false export information to a freight forwarder and breached record-keeping rules, the Bureau of Industry and Security said last week.
The EU should impose more sanctions against the owners and operators of vessels in Russia’s shadow fleet along with the banks and insurance companies they’re using, EU Parliament members said in a resolution adopted Nov. 14.
The Biden administration expects the incoming Trump administration to continue to try to limit growing Chinese support of Russia's defense industrial base, a senior administration official said this week.
A Ukrainian citizen last living in Estonia was sentenced on Nov. 13 to 33 months in prison for skirting U.S. export laws by trying to smuggle a dual-use export-controlled "500 Series CPWZ Precision Jig Grinder" to Russia, DOJ announced. Stanislav Romanyuk, who was charged in 2022 (see 2210200023), pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme, admitting to brokering the sale of the jig grinder from an Estonia-based company he operated.
More than 80 House and Senate Democrats urged the Biden administration to sanction two Israeli officials -- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir -- for spurring destabilizing activity in the West Bank, including settler violence against Palestinians and “illegal and dangerous” settlement expansion.
Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, introduced a bill Nov. 13 that would authorize the president to sanction foreign individuals and companies that are most responsible for exacerbating climate change and deforestation.
The incoming Trump administration likely will end the Biden administration’s temporary pause on pending decisions for liquefied natural gas exports, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said late Nov. 13.