The Commerce Department is close to publishing a rule that will expand its authority to block shipments of foreign made goods to Huawei, according to a Jan. 14 Reuters report. The rule would lower the U.S.-origin threshold on exports to Huawei to 10 percent, Reuters said, and expand the purview to include “non-technical goods like consumer electronics” and “non-sensitive chips.” Commerce sent the rule to the Office of Management and Budget after an interagency meeting last week, the report said. A top Commerce official recently confirmed the agency was considering a range of expanded restrictions of foreign exports to Huawei, including changes to the Direct Product Rule and a broadened de minimis level (see 1912100033).
Akin Gump hired Hagir Elawad, previously legislative affairs director for the United Arab Emirates Embassy in the U.S., as a senior policy advisor in the firm's international trade practice, it said in a news release. While at the embassy, she worked on “a wide array of issues, including sanctions, export controls, aviation and aerospace, Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States matters,” the firm said.
GunUniversity.com posted a copy of a document that it says is the Commerce Department’s final rule for the transfer of export controls of firearms, ammunition and defense items from the State Department to Commerce. In a Jan. 14 post, the website said the rule will be published this week. The National Shooting Sports Foundation also expected the rule to be published this week (see 2001140043) and has called it the top concern of the gun industry (see 1908130066). Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has said he will block any attempt to transfer the controls from the U.S. Munitions List to the Commerce Control List unless the administration abides by certain requests, including informing the Senate of certain licensed exports (see 1912160057). Commerce did not comment on the document’s authenticity.
The State Department rescinded statutory debarments for three people and two entities that previously pleaded guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act, but did not reinstate their export privileges, according to a notice in the Federal Register. The agency rescinded debarments for Jami Siraj Choudhury, David Michael Janowski II, Netria Corporation, Jonathan Robert Reynolds and State Metal Industries after each requested reinstatement. The State Department said each party took “appropriate steps to address the causes of the violations sufficient to warrant rescission of their respective notice of statutory debarment.” But the agency also said the notice does not reinstate their export privileges, adding that it no longer requires export privileges to be reinstated before a debarment is rescinded. “This change in policy recognizes that the circumstances warranting statutory debarment may be different from those warranting the revocation of export privileges,” the State Department said. The policy change was announced in March (see 1903120050).
Five men were indicted for conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Powers Act and the Export Control Reform Act by trying to illegally export items to Pakistan, the Justice Department said in a Jan. 15 press release. The men -- Muhammad Kamran Wali of Pakistan, Muhammad Ahsan Wali and Haji Wali Muhammad Sheikh of Canada, Ashraf Khan Muhammad of Hong Kong, and Ahmed Waheed of the United Kingdom -- used a network of front companies to export the goods to Pakistan’s Advanced Engineering Research Organization (AERO) and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC).
The United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementations introduced a sanctions regime on Belarus for human rights violations and to “encourage” the government to “respect democratic principles and institutions,” the OFSI said in a Jan. 15 notice. The U.K. also released an explanatory memorandum about the sanctions and guidance, and will eventually release a list of people sanctioned under the regulations. The measures include assets freezes, trade prohibitions and criminal penalties for violations of the sanctions, including fines and prison sentences. License exceptions are available for “certain circumstances,” including “acts done for the purpose of national security,” “prior obligations,” “extraordinary situations” and more.
The State Department sanctioned Moldovan official and oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc for corruption, the State Department said Jan. 13. The agency also sanctioned Plahotniuc’s family members, including his wife, Oxana Childescu, son, Timofei Plahotniuc, and his minor child.
The United Kingdom's Export Control Joint Unit on Jan. 14 updated a series of open general export licenses, including exports for dual-use goods, military goods, chemicals, low-value shipments, information and security items, and more. The updates clarify who is eligible to use the licenses.
In the Jan. 14 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The United Kingdom, France and Germany plan to trigger the dispute settlement mechanism of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, potentially leading to European snapback sanctions against Iran. In a Jan. 14 statement, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the three countries still want to preserve the agreement, but “we could no longer leave the growing Iranian violations of the nuclear agreement unanswered,” Maas said, according to an unofficial translation. “We will tackle this together with all partners in the agreement. We call on Iran to participate constructively in the negotiation process that is now beginning.”