The Commerce Department’s proposed guardrails for recipients of Chips Act funding could lead to compliance risks for semiconductor companies, especially as the agency bolsters its enforcement arm, law firms said. They also said companies should carefully review how the proposals intersect with chip export restrictions.
The U.K. amended or corrected two entries under its Russia sanctions list and another under its Cyber sanctions list, according to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. The entry for Volodymir Vasilyovich Saldo, founder of the Salvation Committee for Peace and Order in Kherson, was amended to add his address. The entry for Vladimir Konstantinovich Markov, manager for Gazprom, had a correction made to his date of birth. Under the Cyber sanctions list, OFSI amended the entry for Vitaliy Nikolayevich Kovalev to clarify use of an alias.
The European Commission updated its Russia sanctions FAQs on "export-related restrictions for dual-use goods and advanced technologies." According to the EU Sanctions blog, the FAQs were amended to show that the restrictions bar transit via the territory of Russia of dual-use goods and technology shipped from the EU. The new FAQs also update the Correlation Table that links prohibited goods with their Combined Nomenclature (CN) commodity codes.
The top executive in the EU, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, told reporters in China that the trade deficit between the EU and China has more than tripled in a decade, and said she told the Chinese president "this trajectory is not sustainable and the underlying structural issues need to be addressed."
The U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut ordered Estonia-based exporter By Trade OU to forfeit about $826,000 in connection with the attempted export of a dual-use export-controlled item to Russia, DOJ announced. The company, along with a Latvia-based corporation, conspired to ship a jig grinder made in Connecticut to Russia.
G-7 trade ministers stressed the importance of export controls this week and said they will continue to work together to counter evasion tactics. The countries, including the U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K., France, Italy and Canada, said export controls are a “fundamental policy tool to address the challenges posed by the diversion of technology critical to military applications,” adding that they “continue to work with other states” to strengthen the restrictions.
DOJ’s recent emphasis on corporate compliance may cause companies to update how they conduct due diligence on investment transactions, Morgan Lewis said in a new report released this month. The firm said DOJ is increasingly playing a more active role in the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which could prompt investors to reassess their procedures for evaluating sensitive deals.
Microsoft will pay more than $3.3 million combined to settle alleged export control and sanctions violations largely related to its foreign subsidiaries, the Bureau of Industry and Security and the Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a pair of news releases April 6.
Chinese officials recently have slowed merger reviews of a “number” of proposed acquisitions by U.S. companies, asking the firms to first make available in China products that may be subject to U.S. export controls, The Wall Street Journal reported. China has so far slow-walked merger reviews of Intel’s $5.2 billion purchase of Israel-based Tower Semiconductor and chipmaker MaxLinear’s $3.8 billion purchase of Taiwan-based Silicon Motion Technology, the report said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Gary Bodeau, the former president of the Haitian Chamber of Deputies, for his “extensive involvement in corruption.” The agency imposed sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act against Bodeau, who has “created an environment that empowers illegal armed gangs and their supporters to inflict violence on the Haitian people,” said Brian Nelson, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.