The Bureau of Industry and Security added four entities to the Entity List last week after the agency said they illegally supplied U.S. items and parts to Russia or Venezuela. The companies, which have locations in Costa Rica, Ecuador, India, Panama, Spain, Russia and Venezuela, either supplied U.S.-origin integrated circuits to Russia’s defense sector or helped the Nicolas Maduro-led regime in Venezuela illegally acquire export-controlled aircraft parts.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is preparing to release another new set of Russia-related export controls next month, which could include potential additions to the Entity List, said Matthew Borman, the agency’s deputy assistant secretary for export administration.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week removed a Chinese scientific institute from the Entity List that the agency had originally added in 2020 for ties to human rights abuses in Xinjiang (see 2005220058). The move, outlined in a final rule effective Nov. 16, removed the Ministry of Public Security’s Institute of Forensic Science of China from the list.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is working to convince more countries to place export controls on advanced semiconductors and chipmaking equipment destined to China, but the agency couldn’t afford to delay its most recent chip controls as other nations mulled them over, said Thea Kendler, BIS assistant secretary for export administration. While the agency prefers to implement its chip controls and other restrictions alongside allies, “we will not hesitate to act unilaterally to protect U.S. national security,” Kendler said.
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As the Bureau of Industry and Security adds new export controls on emerging technologies, it should also remove outdated restrictions on items that may no longer warrant licensing requirements, such as life jackets and fire extinguishers, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a report. The think tank also urged BIS to shrink the Entity List to only entities that pose the most serious national security threats and consider giving preferential licensing treatment to a broader set of countries, including Vietnam and Moldova.
Congress should order a review of U.S. semiconductor export controls against China and ask the administration to create a public database of entities connected to China’s military, which would help U.S. companies with their compliance practices, a congressional commission said this week. The bipartisan commission also said Congress should explore the idea of a single export licensing system to streamline export requirements overseen by both the Commerce and State departments.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is pushing its annual update conference until next year, the agency announced on its website. The conference was originally scheduled for Nov. 28-30 in Washington but now will be held March 27-29, 2024, BIS said. Existing registrations will remain valid for the new conference dates, but attendees and exhibitors may request refunds.
The Bureau of Industry and Security again renewed the temporary denial order for Russia's Rossiya Airlines, saying the company has continued to illegally operate planes in violation of U.S. export controls, including on flights between Russia and Egypt and Russia and Uzbekistan. The agency renewed the denial order for one year from Nov. 8, part of a change the agency announced in August that allows it to renew certain orders for one year instead of the previous 180-day maximum (see 2308290029). BIS first suspended the export privileges of the airline in May 2022 (see 2205200008) and has renewed the order multiple times.
The U.S. should have placed export controls on a broader range of semiconductors, including legacy chips, as part of its efforts over the last year to restrict sales of advanced semiconductors to China, said Nazak Nikakhtar, a former acting Bureau of Industry and Security undersecretary. She said a lack of legacy chip controls is allowing China to dominate that sector of the industry and grab market share away from companies in the U.S. and its allies, including South Korea and Taiwan.