Beijing held a national conference on export controls last week, where government officials summarized Chinese export control actions over the past year and “studied and arranged the next key tasks,” according to an unofficial translation of a notice from China’s commerce ministry. Officials called for an “improvement of the modern national export control system” and added that export controls play “an increasingly important role in safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development interests and promoting high-quality development of trade,” the ministry said.
The State Department has completed a round of interagency review for a proposed rule that could revise the International Traffic in Arms Regulations by updating export controls on certain launch vehicles, ballistic missiles and other items in Category IV of the U.S. Munitions List and spacecraft and related items in Category XV of the USML. The rule, sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Sept. 17 and completed Oct. 10, would "describe more precisely the articles warranting control on the USML," the agency said, and build on an advance notice of proposed rulemaking issued in March 2019 that solicited comments on the changes.
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week completed rounds of interagency review for two rules that could revise its space-related controls.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. is increasingly requiring companies to enter into mitigation agreements before approving a deal, and those agreements are getting more complex, said a former senior government official who worked on CFIUS cases. And although some companies fear the ongoing CFIUS review of Japan’s Nippon Steel signals that the committee could be veering away from its traditional national security focus, the former official said he’s not expecting the Nippon Steel case to spark a trend of politically motivated reviews.
Trade lawyers Sebastiaan Bennink and Jan Dunin-Wasowicz launched their European law firm, Bennink Dunin-Wasowicz, to counsel on export controls, sanctions and other trade compliance issues, they announced this week. The firm has offices in Amsterdam and Paris.
The U.K. this week renewed a general license that authorizes certain transactions related to humanitarian activities involving Israel, the “occupied Palestinian territories” and Lebanon. The license was scheduled to expire May 14, 2025, but now will expire Nov. 14, 2025. The U.K. also amended the license’s reporting deadlines and added Lebanon to the scope of regions that are authorized by the license; the license previously covered only Israel and the “occupied Palestinian territories.”
China announced sanctions this week on three U.S. companies that supply the defense industry -- Edge Autonomy, Huntington Ingalls Industries and Skydio -- along with 10 defense industry executives for their ties to arms sales to Taiwan, according to an unofficial translation of a notice from the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The designations target employees from those three firms along with Sierra Nevada, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and other defense companies. The ministry said the sanctions freeze their assets in China, and people and entities in China are blocked from “conducting relevant transactions” with them.
President Joe Biden this week renewed a national emergency authorizing certain sanctions related to Syria, the White House said. The situation in Syria "undermines the campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" and threatens civilians, peace and security in the region, the White House said. The emergency for Syria was renewed for one year from Oct. 14.
Companies affected by Norway’s recently announced export controls on emerging technologies should “act promptly” to make sure their exports don’t raise any legal or reputational risks, including by updating internal compliance programs, training employees on new licensing requirements and correctly classifying their goods and technology, the law firm Wikborg Rein said in an October client alert. The firm also said companies should review their current business dealings to identify any transactions that will require a license after the new controls take effect Nov. 1.
The U.K. this week issued new guidance to mark the official launch of the Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation, a new agency that it said will boost the country’s powers to investigate, catch and penalize Russia-related sanctions evaders and others who breach U.K. trade controls outside the country (see 2409130015).