The Bureau of Industry and Security is being asked to do more to restrict the export of dual-use items but isn’t getting a commensurate increase in funding and personnel, a technology policy expert said last week.
The Commerce and State departments will hold a Nov. 6 public briefing to discuss details and answer questions about a new set of rules aimed at modernizing U.S. export controls over space-related technology (see 2410180027), Commerce announced in two notices released last week. The briefing will be held 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST at the Commerce building. Registration to attend in person closed Nov. 1; registration for virtual attendance will close Nov. 5. Written questions must be received by 5 p.m. EST Nov. 4.
Banks that choose not to follow a set of export compliance best practices recently issued by the Bureau of Industry and Security may be leaving themselves “wide open” to possible penalties under U.S. export regulations, a senior BIS official said, especially if they don’t have other compliance safeguards in place.
The Bureau of Industry and Security fined multinational chip maker GlobalFoundries $500,000 after it illegally exported semiconductor wafers to a Entity Listed firm with ties to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), China’s flagship chip manufacturing company.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit rejected an argument from a Chinese engineering professor who said his illegal export shouldn't have been subject to national security controls, which made the export subject to a higher base offense (U.S. v. Yi-Chi Shih, 9th Cir. # 23-3718).
Recent Chinese sanctions against American drone-maker Skydio will limit the company’s battery supply, the firm’s CEO said this week, calling the restrictions an “attempt to eliminate the leading American drone company and deepen the world’s dependence on Chinese drone suppliers.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned five people and two companies for their ties to La Linea, which OFAC said is a “violent” Mexican drug trafficking group that moves fentanyl and other drugs into the U.S.
New U.S. guidance for the ocean shipping industry outlines several example scenarios of foreign shipowners, shipping companies, tanker vessels and others looking to evade sanctions. The guidance, issued Oct. 31 by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, is designed to help ocean shipping industry officials recognize new or common “fact patterns that may be indicative of sanctions evasion,” OFAC said, or help them address common due diligence issues while trying to comply with U.S. sanctions.
U.S. export control efforts -- along with enforcement risks for companies -- will continue to rise no matter who wins the upcoming presidential election, said Matthew Axelrod, the lead export enforcement official at the Bureau of Industry and Security.
Switzerland adopted a set of recent EU sanctions against Belarus on Oct. 30, bringing the country in line with the EU’s so-called “No-Belarus clause,” which requires companies to insert language in new contracts to signal certain products can’t be sent to Belarus (see 2407010025). Switzerland also adopted EU sanctions that impose restrictions on investments in companies in the Belarusian energy sector; trade bans on luxury goods, gold, diamonds, coal and crude oil from Belarus; and more.