Hong Kong this month updated its export control lists for certain chemical weapons and strategic commodities to align its regulations with multilateral export control groups. The revisions reflect control changes recently made by the Wassenaar Arrangement, the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Australia Group and the Chemical Weapons Convention, Hong Kong’s Trade and Industry Department said June 11. Hong Kong said it added controls on four sets of “toxic chemicals” and newly developed technologies such as “read-out integrated circuits” used for “night vision capability.” It also “relaxed controls” on some dual-use items, including “signal analysers, supercomputer, [and] radio equipment having quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) techniques.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security fined a Fredericksburg, Virginia, military equipment manufacturer $200,000 for illegally exporting military-related items to military end-users in Russia, BIS said in a June 28 order. The company, Patriot 3, exported maritime jet boots with underwater propulsion systems despite having “knowledge” that the shipment violated the Export Administration Regulations, the order said. BIS said the boots, which were worth about $330,000 and exported in 2014, were controlled in connection with exports to military end-users or for military end-uses in Russia. Patriot 3 sent the boots to the Russian government’s Federal Guard Service, BIS said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on June 28 updated a Belarus-related entry on its Specially Designated Nationals List. The update made changes to the entry for Oleg Leonidovich Slizhevsky, head of the Belarus Public Associations Department at the Ministry of Justice.
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The U.S. and its allies should expand sanctions and continue cutting off China from sensitive technologies as it further undermines democracy in Hong Kong, experts and a U.S. lawmaker said. They also said the U.S. should consider making China meet certain human rights standards before allowing companies to do business there and should work closer with European partners to close off Chinese access to global markets.
The U.S. designated Ousmane Illiassou Djibo, also known as Petit Chapori, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, the State Department said June 28. Djibo is a native Nigerian and leader of the Islamic State Group operating in the Sahara region.
The United Arab Emirates recently introduced “significant” changes to how it administers sanctions, expanding its largely multilateral sanctions regime to also include unilateral measures, Akin Gump said June 28. The regime places new obligations on people and businesses in the UAE, including requirements to screen customers, freeze their assets and cut off transactions if customers violate UAE sanctions.
The multilateral Nuclear Suppliers Group met last week for the first time in more than a year to discuss export controls over nuclear weapons, the Iran nuclear deal, nonproliferation trade restrictions and more. The 48 member countries proposed updates to NSG export control lists and tapped a U.S. official to be a new group chair. Last year’s plenary was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
China has doubled down on efforts to illegally buy oil from Iran due to expectations that the Biden administration is close to easing sanctions on Iran (see 2106240044), the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission said in a June 28 report. Since late 2020, China has “significantly” increased its purchases of Iranian oil “with falsified identification from countries” such as Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, according to the report, which cites data published by Refinitiv.
The European Union banned the sale, transfer or export of dual-use goods and technologies for military use to anyone in Belarus, expanding its sanctions regime on the Eastern European nation, the European Council announced in a June 24 news release. Since the forced landing of a Ryanair flight on May 23 and subsequent arrest of journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, the EU has sanctioned individuals, entities and economic activities in the country (see 2106210023). In this most recent push, the EU also barred the sale, transfer or export of technology intended for use in the “monitoring or interception of the internet and of telephone communications.” Trade in oil products, potassium chloride and goods used in tobacco production are also banned. The European Investment Bank is also instructed to halt any payments under public sector-related agreements with Belarus.