If the Treasury Department doesn't clarify the due-diligence steps that will be required of dealmakers under the agency’s upcoming outbound investment prohibitions, the Biden administration risks chilling a broad range of U.S ventures in China and incentivizing foreign companies to seek funds elsewhere, law firms and industry associations said in comments to the agency.
The Bureau of Industry and Security added 49 entities, mostly from China, to the Entity List for shipping microelectronics to Russian consignees connected to the country’s defense sector. The entities are semiconductor companies, technology businesses, logistics companies and others, and also include companies based in Estonia, Finland, Germany, India, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the U.K.
Emily Weinstein is leaving her role as a research fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology to join the Bureau of Industry and Security, she announced this week on LinkedIn. She will serve as a senior adviser to BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez. Some of Weinstein's recent work has included co-writing research advocating for new multilateral export control efforts (see 2205240039 and 2306270043). She also has outlined a potential way BIS can use its “catch-all controls” to tighten restrictions around exports of sensitive artificial intelligence models (see 2307060037), and has proposed the Biden administration take an end-user list-based approach to restricting outbound investments in Chinese artificial intelligence companies (see 2308300044).
Switzerland added guidance under its Russia sanctions regime pertaining to documents considered valid "proof of the country of origin" for iron and steel goods, according to an unofficial translation. The guidance updated Section 2.1.4, according to the EU Sanctions blog, and said factory test certificates are sufficient proof for COO along with invoices, delivery notes, quality certificates, long-term supplier declarations, production documents, the exporting country's customs forms, trade correspondence and exclusion clauses. Switzerland also laid out when this proof is needed, noting that the forms aren't required when importing steel products from the EU or the U.K. or reimporting goods that have already been in free circulation in Switzerland.
The Bureau of Industry and Security sent an interim final rule for interagency review this week that could update U.S. export controls on certain semiconductor manufacturing items and make modifications to the Entity List. The rule was sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Oct. 4. A BIS spokesperson declined to comment about what the rule will entail.
U.S. allies in Europe and Asia would support new efforts to coordinate on export controls for advanced technologies, including semiconductors, panelists said during an event this week hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But they also said those same countries don’t believe the world needs a new dual-use multilateral export control regime to replace the Wassenaar Arrangement, even though Russia remains a member and can block proposals.
LONDON -- A looming Bureau of Industry and Security rule that would expand the agency’s restrictions on U.S. persons' activities is “going to be a compliance challenge that I don't think we're ready for,” said Robert Monjay, a former BIS analyst and export control executive with Intel.
The Bureau of Industry and Security added 49 entities from China, Estonia, Finland, Germany, India, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the U.K. to its Entity List for providing support to Russia’s military or to its defense industrial base. The entities, outlined in a final rule effective Oct. 6, are subject to license requirements for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations, and licenses will be reviewed under a policy of denial.
The European Commission this week issued a list of 10 critical technology areas that it plans to focus on as part of its economic security strategy, which outlined in June plans to improve export controls and study whether it needs better investment screening guardrails (see 2306200052). Of the 10 categories, the commission singled out four technology areas -- advanced semiconductor technologies, artificial intelligence technologies, quantum technologies and biotechnologies -- that are “highly likely to present the most sensitive and immediate risks related to technology security and technology leakage.”
Farhad Nafeiy, a California-based telecommunications consultant, pleaded guilty this week to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act after he breached the scope of sanctions licenses from the Office of Foreign Assets Control.