China has been more receptive to U.S. end-use checks on Chinese entities as a result of a Commerce Department policy change from October, Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez said this week. Estevez also said he doesn’t expect any significant revisions to BIS’s most recent chip restrictions on China, and warned that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would spark new, strict U.S. export controls that would cause U.S. companies to lose “billions” of dollars in Chinese business.
The EU extended for another year its sanctions regime pertaining to individuals and entities who commit serious human rights violations worldwide, the European Council announced Dec. 5. The restrictions, which cover 17 individuals and five entities and amount to a travel ban and asset freeze, will be in effect until Dec. 8, 2023.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls sent a final rule for interagency review related to certain license exemptions for allies. The rule, received by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Dec. 2, would amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations’ Supplement No. 1 to Part 126 “in support of allies.” DDTC in July announced an open general license pilot to authorize reexports and retransfers of certain defense items and services to Australia, Canada and the U.K. (see 2207190008).
Canada recently imposed additional sanctions against Iran for its suppression of protesters, targeting four Iranian people and five entities “for their roles in the regime’s gross and systematic human rights violations and actions that continue to threaten international peace and security.” The sanctions target military officials Morteza Talaei and Hassan Karami; Ali Ghanaatkar Mavardiani, a senior judge prosecutor and interrogator; Iranian cargo and commercial airline Safiran Airport Services; technology research services company Baharestan Kish; and Javan News Agency. Also sanctioned were Paravar Pars Aerospace Engineering Services and Research, Design and Manufacturing of Aircraft Engines, and Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi.
The Bureau of Industry and Security extended the comment period for its recently announced chip export controls against China, saying it wanted to give more time for commenters to review the October rule and submit their feedback. Comments were originally due Dec. 12 (see 2210070049) but will now be due Jan. 31, BIS said in a notice released Dec. 5. The new controls, designed to restrict China’s ability to acquire advanced computing chips and manufacture advanced semiconductors, have posed challenges for some in the semiconductor industry and sparked calls for additional guidance (see 2211010042 and 2211150044).
The G-7, the EU and Australia officially set a price cap on Russian oil Dec. 5, imposing certain service and shipping restrictions on oil originating in Russia and trading above $60 per barrel. The cap comes into force after months of discussions between the nations, including the announcement of a future cap by the countries in September (see 2209020033), and aims to restrict revenue to Russia as it continues its war in Ukraine.
The U.S. and the EU announced new export control initiatives during the Trade and Technology Council’s meetings this week, including a pilot program to better exchange information on dual-use export controls and a new effort to increase research collaboration on quantum technologies. But the U.S. didn’t use the meetings to try to convince European officials to push its firms, such as ASML, to adopt more stringent chip export controls against China, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.
The European Council announced that non-EU European nations aligned with five different sanctions decisions. Concerning the Nov. 14 move to amend the list of individuals and entities subject to sanctions on Iran, the countries of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, Moldova, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway also imposed the decision, the council said.
Switzerland has frozen $7.99 billion in Russian assets out of an existing $49.1 billion marked by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, the Swiss Federal Council announced. In addition to the nearly $8 billion, Switzerland has also seized 15 properties. SECO said that after the imposition of the Russian sanctions, 123 individuals or entities reported 7,548 business relationships with sanctioned parties, carrying a value of over $49.1 billion. The Federal Council clarified, though, that this number can "not be equated" with the total amount of funds of Russian origin held in Switzerland because Swiss citizens "are exempt from the ban on deposits and the reporting requirement."
The Bureau of Industry and Security recently revoked export privileges for seven people after they illegally exported or tried to export controlled items from the U.S., including to Mexico and Russia.