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.
Concern is “growing” within the U.S., Australia and the U.K. that “indiscriminate and extraterritorial application” of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations will hurt the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership and “slow-roll cooperation on existing technology transfer,” the Sydney-based U.S. Studies Centre said in a report released this month. The report warned that “another failure” to reform the ITAR could “carry significant consequences for the three countries’ shared defence technology advantages vis-a-vis China and, therefore, their ability to deter regional conflict.”
Germany charged four managers of spyware company FinFisher with intentionally violating dual-use export controls after they sold surveillance products, without licenses, to countries outside the EU. The managers of the FinFisher group of companies, which were some of the “world's leading” spyware firms before declaring insolvency last year, never “even applied for” export licenses from German authorities and tried to evade detection, Munich’s public prosecutor announced this week, according to an unofficial translation.
Former partners at Crowell & Moring and Ashurst have joined European firm Van Bael & Bellis's growing London-based International Trade practice, the firm announced. Michelle Linderman, formerly at Crowell, joins as a partner whose practice will center on "UK-specific and cross-border sanctions, the UK Modern Slavery Act, export controls, and cybersecurity issues," among other issues in international trade and sanctions. Joining her is Ross Denton, former head of International Trade at Ashurst, as senior counsel. His practice will key in on "export controls, sanctions, customs and trade remedies, as well as cartels, state aid/subsidy control and foreign direct investment control."
A group of European countries not in the EU aligned with a recent sanctions move from the European Council under the Myanmar restrictions regime, the council announced. In late April, the council extended the sanctions until 2024 and updated the listing of certain individuals and entities subject to restrictions. The countries of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway also imposed the decision.
The EU added another five people and two entities to its human rights violations sanctions regime for their roles in human rights abuses in Iran, the European Council announced. The listings include the commander of the Tehran Police Relief Unit of Iran's Law Enforcement Forces, the Iranian Police spokesperson and the Supreme Council of Cyberspace of Iran secretary. The council also listed the IRGC Cooperative Foundation, which manages the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' investments. The designations were rolled out as part of the EU's eighth sanctions package under its human rights violations sanctions regime.
China this week banned certain Chinese companies from purchasing products from U.S. semiconductor company Micron, saying they are a national security risk and shouldn’t be used in “critical information infrastructure” projects. The country’s cyberspace regulator said its infrastructure operators “should stop purchasing Micron products” after a Chinese government review found they have “relatively serious potential network security issues, which pose a major security risk” to China, according to an unofficial translation of a May 21 notice. “The purpose of this network security review of Micron's products is to prevent product network security issues from endangering the security of the country's key information infrastructure, which is a necessary measure to maintain national security.”
The State Department recently certified that Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria and Venezuela aren’t cooperating fully with U.S. antiterrorism efforts. Under the Arms Export Control Act, the U.S. can’t authorize certain defense exports to countries listed under this certification.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is seeking public comments on an information collection involving requests for advisory opinions. Exporters can submit an advisory opinion request to DDTC to help determine whether the agency may grant or deny a particular export, to receive guidance on regulatory requirements and more. Comments are due July 24.
Ross Roggio of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, was convicted for a host of crimes including illegally shipping export-controlled firearms parts to Iraq and operating an illegal weapons manufacturing plant in Kurdistan, DOJ announced. Roggio was also convicted of torture and for arranging for Kurdish soldiers to abduct an Estonian citizen and detain him at a Kurdish military compound, where Roggio tortured the man. The victim worked at a weapons factory Roggio was developing in Iraq to manufacture M4 rifles and Glock pistols.