The Bureau of Industry and Security extended by 30 days the public comment period for an information collection involving its five-year records retention requirement for export transactions and boycott requests. Companies must keep records related to exports and boycott actions for that time frame to “preserve potential evidence for investigations.” Comments had been due June 5 (see 2304040013).

The top lawmakers on the House Select Committee on China urged the Commerce Department to strengthen its Oct. 7 China chip controls, saying Chinese firms have “identified workarounds.” In a letter last week to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., said the interim final rule’s threshold for the “bidirectional transfer rate of 600 Gbyte/s should be lowered sufficiently to prevent clever engineering that bypasses the regulations.” They also said the rule, which will be updated in the coming months when finalized by the Bureau of Industry and Security (see 2307260071), should address Chinese firms using cloud computing services to “outsource their advanced computing needs” and evade the export controls (see 2303210037 and 2305160092).

The most recent tri-seal compliance note from the Commerce, Treasury and Justice departments is another sign that the U.S. is increasing its focus on export and sanctions enforcement and of the government’s effort to push companies to voluntarily disclose potential violations, law firms said last week. The firms urged businesses to review each agency's disclosure policy, saying the note could mean increased risks for companies that choose not to disclose.

The Bureau of Industry and Security shouldn’t renew the one-year authorizations it gave to certain foreign chip companies as part of its Oct. 7 China chip controls unless the agency makes “significant” changes to the restrictions when it finalizes the controls in the coming months, said Derek Scissors, a China policy expert with the American Enterprise Institute. Scissors said extending the licenses beyond their October expiration would “undermine” the Biden administration’s goal of denying China advanced semiconductor technology and unfairly advantage foreign companies over U.S. firms.

The Bureau of Industry and Security this week renewed its temporary denial order for a Venezuela-based cargo airline after saying it continues to try to violate U.S. export restrictions and the terms of the TDO. BIS said Empresa de Transporte Aereocargo del Sur, also known as Aerocargo del Sur Transportation or Emtrasur, has demonstrated "continued disregard" for U.S. export controls.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, introduced a bill this week that could lead to new export controls on certain U.S. “genetic technology” destined to China. The Stopping Genetic Monitoring by China Act would add various types of “genetic sampling and testing kits, analytical technology, and software” to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Commerce Control List, including:

The Bureau of Industry and Security is drafting a final rule to expand its nuclear nonproliferation controls on China and Macau. The agency sent the rule for interagency review July 24.

The Bureau of Industry and Security will now require companies that report boycott requests to inform BIS of the “specific party who made the request,” Matthew Axelrod, the agency’s top export enforcement official, said in a July 26 policy memo to enforcement employees. Companies previously were only required to report to BIS that they received the boycott request and the “country from which the request originated,” the memo said. Information on the identity of the requester will allow BIS to “more easily investigate and hold accountable” parties engaging in a boycott.

The Bureau of Industry and Security this week signed an “agreement” with the Office of Foreign Assets Control to improve coordination among the two agencies’ export control and sanctions enforcement teams, said Matthew Axelrod, the top BIS export enforcement official. The agreement will help in “formalizing our close coordination and partnership,” Axelrod said during a July 26 Society for International Affairs conference, according to a copy of his speech emailed by BIS.

The U.S. this week issued new guidance on its various voluntary self-disclosure policies for sanctions and export control violations, urging companies to disclose offenses and stressing the importance of “robust” compliance programs. The six-page “compliance note,” the second jointly issued by the Commerce, Treasury and Justice departments (see 2303020054), outlines DOJ’s recently updated disclosure policies for criminal export and sanctions violations, the raft of changes made to the Bureau of Industry and Security's administrative enforcement policies over the past year, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s procedures for assessing voluntary disclosures. The notice also describes the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s whistleblower program.