As President Joe Biden searches for a leader for the Bureau of Industry and Security, the agency should prioritize candidates who are familiar with export control regulations and who can effectively manage the agency’s licensing process, two technology experts said. But others said Biden should choose a candidate with strong knowledge of the challenges imposed by China to help lead U.S. technology policy through an era of intense competition.
National competent authorities may authorize the release of funds frozen under European Union sanctions to satisfy the terms of a preexisting financial guarantee, the European Commission said in a June 2 opinion. An NCA had asked the European Union to determine whether funds subject to the Central African Republic sanctions regime could be used to pay a guarantee. The commission found that the use of frozen funds toward a guarantee amounts to a “payment” under Article 9, which says funds can be unfrozen to make payments due before the listing. Provided that all the conditions of Article 9 are met, the guarantee can be fulfilled “without the consent of or against the Designated Person.” Ultimately, the commission said, it is up to the NCA to determine if the conditions are fulfilled and, in particular, whether the payment of the guarantee was due before the sanctions.
The European Union's ambassador to the U.S. said that as the world watches the European Union-U.S. summit in a week, they will be looking to see that “we are capable of resolving quickly and effectively our bilateral trade irritants.” He said they also want to see “that we can work and will work together to address the new challenges that sit on the nexus of technology and trade and security.” He said that export controls and cyber security measures are some of the ways to address those challenges, and there should be an announcement at the conference on those matters.
The United Kingdom amended its export control laws regarding defense-related goods to reflect revisions made to the Wassenaar Arrangement munitions list. According to a June 8 guidance, changes were made to Schedule 2 (military goods, software and technology) and Schedule 3 (U.K. controlled dual-use goods, software and technology). The Schedule 2 changes consist of revised definitions and changes to ML1, ML2, ML6, ML8, ML10, ML11, ML13, ML15, ML17, ML18 and ML21. The Schedule 3 alterations are changes to definitions and to PL9009, according to the release. The alterations took effect June 7.
Shannon Barley, a Census Bureau official who works on export-related issues, will soon leave her division and transfer elsewhere within Census, she said in a June 8 email. Barley worked with Kiesha Downs, chief of Census’ Foreign Trade Division’s regulations branch, on the agency’s routed export control effort (see 2012080046), the proposed elimination of export filing requirements for shipments to Puerto Rico (see 2104230025) and other export-related regulations. She will no longer work on the Federal Trade Regulations in her new position as a program analyst in the decennial census division. She starts her new role June 21.
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Semiconductors are a major plank of the broad supply chain vulnerability report released by the White House, and the report tries to grapple with the fact that major U.S. manufacturers are reliant on exports to China and that the U.S. and its allies want to maintain a technology edge over Chinese chip manufacturers.
The Commerce Department is unsure whether the multilateral Wassenaar Arrangement will be able to meet in person this year after the regime’s 2020 plenary was canceled, potentially creating more uncertainty surrounding the group’s next batch of multilateral export control proposals. The agency also still has not made a decision on eliminating electronic export filing requirements for shipments to Puerto Rico, but has made some progress on its long-awaited routed export rule, a Commerce official said.
The Treasury Department held another discussion with industry on the impact of U.S. sanctions as the agency conducts a review of its sanctions regimes (see 2105280004). The meeting, held last week between Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo and small-business representatives, included a discussion on how Treasury’s sanctions “play a role as small businesses seek to grow and expand,” the agency said June 2. “[T]hrough the sanctions review [Adeyemo] seeks to identify ways to strengthen the sanctions tool to best advance our national security, foreign policy, and economic objectives,” Treasury said. The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said June 7 that it participated in the discussion.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the State Department’s decision to waive sanctions against the company behind Nord Stream 2 (see 2105200055), telling a House committee that the sanctions would’ve done little to stop the nearly completed pipeline from being finished and would've only damaged U.S. relations with Germany. But Blinken also said the agency may be willing to rescind the waiver and impose the sanctions.