The Bureau of Industry and Security needs much more funding to carry out its export control work, lawmakers and former officials said during a House hearing this week. Kevin Wolf, a former senior official at BIS, said Congress should consider doubling -- perhaps quadrupling -- the agency’s resources.
The U.K. amended one entry under its Myanmar sanctions regime, in a May 10 notice. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation changed the listing to reflect the company's name change from Synpex Shwe Company Ltd. to SS Techniques Company Limited, with the original name now listed as one the company is also known as.
The EU is proposing a “new tool” to combat sanctions circumvention by penalizing third countries that ship EU goods to Russia, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said this week. The measure, part of the EU’s most recent proposed sanctions package against Russia, could allow member states to impose export controls on those third countries.
A new House bill could lead to new sanctions against anyone involved in Iran’s missile or drone program, including buyers and sellers of the drones and those “importing or exporting any restricted missile or drone-related materiel to or from Iran.” The Fight Crime Act, which has bipartisan support, would also sanction people or entities that provide Iran “or its proxies” with products that “may contribute to the development of missiles or drones” or that participate “in joint missile or drone development with Iran or its proxies.”
The Census Bureau is nixing plans to update its Automated Export System early with a new proposed export filing requirement for certain U.S. Munitions List exports, CBP said in a May 10 CSMS message. Census last week said it planned to update the AESDirect web application May 9 with the new data element (see 2305040024) even though it had just proposed the electronic export filing requirement one day earlier and was still soliciting public comments on the change, which are due July 3 (see 2305020007).
President Joe Biden extended for one year beyond May 11 a national emergency that authorizes certain sanctions related to Syria. The Syrian government’s actions “with respect to chemical weapons and supporting terrorist organizations” continue to threaten national security, the White House said May 8.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is alerting users of its website and sanctions list data files of upcoming technical changes. The agency is beginning its annual renewal of the public certificate for its website, which will be replaced May 15 beginning at 8 p.m. EDT. That could impact scripts and other automated processes that download the agency’s “list-related data products," OFAC said. The process will take about one hour “to be fully distributed worldwide,” it said. Users may need to update their configuration to trust the renewed certificate in order to prevent a “loss in functionality.”
A former Pentagon official expected to testify before Congress May 11 said U.S. officials for years have “refused” to fix failures in its export control system that allow China to acquire sensitive technologies. Stephen Coonen, who spent nearly 14 years in the Defense Technology Security Administration, including as its senior foreign affairs adviser for China, said he resigned from the agency in 2021 to protest the Bureau of Industry and Security’s “willful blindness” surrounding its export policies.
The American Cotton Shippers Association asked the Federal Maritime Commission to uphold a recent summary decision that ordered carriers to stop adopting, maintaining and enforcing regulations or practices that "limit the ability of a motor carrier to select the chassis provider." In an amicus brief filed to the FMC May 8, ACSA said it supports the decision because agreements between ocean carriers and non-party Intermodal Equipment Providers (IEPs) place limits on the “choice in chassis provisioning for U.S. cotton exporters, thereby causing delays in the movement of cotton, creating avoidably inefficiencies, imposing needless costs, and ultimately undermining the competitiveness of U.S. cotton shipments in the global marketplace."
Rep. John James, R-Mich., introduced a bill this month that could lead to more sanctions on supporters of Iran’s military forces. The legislation, which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs May 5, would sanction foreign people who “support or conduct certain transactions” with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps or “other sanctioned persons.” The full text hasn’t yet been released.