Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
British semiconductor company Arm, in its initial U.S. public offering this week, said it’s facing uncertainty from U.S. and U.K. export controls and doesn’t expect to receive an export license to ship certain high performance processor cores to China. The company also said it’s expecting to see slower growth in its China sales revenue due to several factors, including various government-imposed “trade and national security policies.”
The U.K. High Court of Justice's Administrative Court on Aug. 18 rejected a sanctions designation appeal by Eugene Shvidler, an associate of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and a director of mining giant Evraz. The court ruled the designation was "proportionate" and not "discriminatory."
The State Department will again extend a September 2020 rule that temporarily suspended restrictions on certain defense exports to Cyprus, the agency said last week. The 2020 rule (see 2009020045) amended the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to relax restrictions surrounding exports of nonlethal defense goods and services to Cyprus, and also eased restrictions on reexports, retransfers and temporary imports. The agency has extended the rule each year since (see 2209190009 and 2211210028). The State Department plans to soon publish a Federal Register notice to reflect the renewal, which will apply for FY 2024, the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls said.
The State Department sent a final rule for interagency review that could loosen export restrictions on certain controlled defense shipments and services for Ethiopia. The rule, sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Aug. 17, would remove Ethiopia from the International Traffic in Arms Regulations’ list of proscribed countries. Those countries are generally subject to a license review policy of denial.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week removed 33 entities from its Unverified List -- including Chinese technology companies and universities -- after it was able to successfully complete end-use checks. The entities include 27 based in China, two in Pakistan and one each in Indonesia, Singapore, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The agency also removed two Russian entities from the UVL because it placed both on the more restrictive Entity List last year.
The U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on Aug. 17 amended the entry for Igor Viktorovich Makarov on its Russia sanctions list. The change updated identifying information for Makarov, who supports the Russian government through his work in the country’s energy sector.
New Zealand this month sanctioned five people and four entities for supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine. The designations target five Belarusian senior military officials providing “strategic military support” to Russia and four Belarusian state-owned companies and financial institutions “providing material or strategic support” to Russia’s war. A list of New Zealand's most recently updated sanctions list can be found here.
Canada announced another set of Russia sanctions last week, designating 15 people and three judicial courts for human rights violations. The designations target senior officials of the Russian government, the judiciary committee, an investigative committee and federally funded courts, including the “notorious” Basmanny District Court. The court has been “directly involved” in human rights abuses against Russian political figures who oppose the government, including Vladimir Kara-Murza and Alexei Navalny, Canada said.
The U.N. this month launched an online sanctions research platform, an “independent reference tool for collecting, researching and analyzing global sanction data,” the organization said in a press release. The platform is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish and is open to anyone “interested in or working on issues related to sanctions and their impact, with no access or usage restrictions.” The tool is aimed at providing a “comprehensive online repository” for information on sanctions and their impact on human rights.