The Bureau of Industry and Security on Nov. 6 will hold a public briefing on its recently updated export controls on advanced semiconductors and chipmaking equipment (see 2310170055). The briefing, which also will cover the agency’s addition this month of 13 Chinese semiconductor and technology companies to the Entity List (see 2310170063), will be led by Assistant Secretary for Export Administration Thea Kendler, who will “address important aspects” of the new restrictions.
The U.S. and the EU in recent months may have had a breakthrough tracking export-controlled goods being illegally diverted through third countries to Russia, senior sanctions officials said this week. They also said the U.S., the EU and other Group of 7 nations are preparing to take new “legal action” against parties transporting Russian oil using shadow fleets in violation of the price cap.
The EU released Oct. 20 its annual report on the implementation of the bloc's strategy targeting weapons of mass destruction proliferation. The report breaks down the state of issues regarding nuclear, chemical and biological issues, along with the current export control and sanctions regimes geared towards addressing these problems.
South Korea will look to Tanzania, in addition to ramping up domestic production, to secure graphite as a result of China's impending export controls on the critical mineral (see 2310200030), South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said this month, according to an unofficial translation. The agency said it will need to continue to monitor the situation and will look to "secure additional response capabilities" by supporting domestic artificial graphite production and securing long-term supply contracts with "private companies with mines in third countries such as Tanzania."
The U.S. filed a forfeiture complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against a 348-foot superyacht allegedly owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, DOJ announced Oct. 23. The vessel, worth more than $300 million, was seized in 2022 in Fiji following a U.S. request for mutual legal assistance. The yacht was "improved and maintained in violation of" sanctions on Kerimov and "those acting on his behalf," DOJ alleged.
The Commerce Department should add China-affiliated public security bureaus and others to the Entity List for their involvement in a “mass DNA collection project” in Tibet, chairs of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China said in a letter this month to the Biden administration. They said Chinese officials in Tibet have likely purchased DNA kits and replacement parts from American biotechnology company Thermo Fisher Scientific and are using those products for “political identification,” racial profiling and other “egregious” human rights abuses.
The Bureau of Industry and Security sent a final rule for interagency review that would make corrections to the Export Administration Regulations. The rule, sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Oct. 23, would “correct inadvertent errors to two recent” BIS Federal Register notices and would be “merely technical corrections,” the agency said.
The U.S. is not using its export controls for “economic protectionism” and is committed to a narrow, “targeted” approach to restrictions on advanced technologies, Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez said in Japan last week. “We are laser focused on national security, and the controls we put in place are focused on select advanced technologies that have strategic applications,” Estevez said during the Mount Fuji Dialogue, an annual summit of U.S. and Japanese representatives. “We are strictly adhering to the small yard, high fence concept in applying our export controls.”
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The Bureau of Industry and Security revoked the export privileges of a Georgia resident after she admitted to trying to illegally export about $25,000 worth of optical sighting devices from the U.S. to China. As part of a settlement agreement, Dina Zhu of Lawrenceville, Georgia, will be barred from participating in any transaction subject to the Export Administration Regulations for one year from Oct. 20, but she won’t face a fine.