The Bureau of Industry and Security added Myanmar to its list of countries subject to military intelligence end-use and end-user (MIEU) controls, the agency said in a notice. It also made several technical corrections to the original MIEU rule, which was issued in January and took effect March 16 (see 2101140035). The interim final rule takes effect April 9.
The Bureau of Industry and Security added seven Chinese entities to the Entity List for procuring U.S.-origin items in a way that harms U.S. national security, BIS said in an April 8 final rule. The seven “supercomputing entities” also support China’s military and help it develop modern weapons, the Commerce Department said.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee released bipartisan legislation that it said will better position the U.S. to compete with China and penalize Chinese human rights abuses. The more than 200-page Strategic Competition Act of 2021, released April 8, would authorize a host of U.S. measures to tackle trade and technology competition issues with China, including sanctions, export controls and increased cooperation with allies on investment screenings. The bill focuses on countering China’s “predatory international economic behavior” and represents an “unprecedented” bipartisan effort, committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said. Menendez said the bill has the support to be “overwhelmingly approved” by the committee next week and the full Senate “shortly thereafter.”
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced changes to its sanctions on Yemen and the Central African Republic: an amendment to the entry for Sultan Saleh Aida Aida Zabin, the director of Yemen's Criminal Investigation Department, in an April 6 notice; and removal of the Bureau D'Achat de Diamant en Centrafrique/Kardiam of the Central African Republic from the sanctions list, meaning it is no longer subject to an asset freeze, in a separate April 6 notice.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is seeking comments on the agency’s information collection requirements in its Reporting, Procedures and Penalties Regulations, OFAC said in a notice released April 7. The information collection covers reports required by OFAC that are reviewed by the Department of the Treasury and may be used for compliance, civil penalty and enforcement purposes by the agency. Comments are due June 7.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on April 7 added four people and two entities to its Specially Designated Nationals List. The designated entries have addresses in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, including the Abid Ali Khan Transnational Criminal Organization. OFAC didn’t provide more information on the designations, and an agency spokesperson didn’t comment.
The Bureau of Industry and Security's decision to eliminate certain reporting requirements for encryption items (see 2103260019) should exempt a greater number of companies from filing mandatory declarations with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., DLA Piper said in an April 6 post.
Following the Chinese government's decision to place retaliatory sanctions on Canadian and British officials and entities for their criticism of the alleged human rights abuses in the country's Xinjiang region, lawyers in both countries are expressing concern over the rising tensions between the two sides and noticing greater business concern over maintaining Chinese market access. Neil Williams and Thomas Cattee, white collar crime lawyers at Gherson Solicitors in the United Kingdom, said the Chinese sanctions are merely symbolic without any real underlying economic effect but that sanctioned individuals in the U.K. have deferred to Chinese demands.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo suggested her agency has no plans to remove Huawei from the Entity List and said she will aggressively use trade tools to compete with China. But she also said she will prioritize efforts to invest in U.S. technology industries over imposing more export restrictions. “My broad view is what we do on offense is more important than what we do on defense,” Raimondo told reporters April 7. “To compete in the long run with China, we need to rebuild America in all of the ways we're talking about.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security added seven Chinese “supercomputing” entities to the Entity List for procuring U.S.-origin items in a way that harms U.S. national security and supports China’s military, BIS said in a final rule that takes effect today. The rule imposes a license requirement for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations, and BIS will impose a license review policy of presumption of denial. No license exceptions will be available.