Two U.S. semiconductor companies said they still see opportunities to sell into the Chinese market despite sweeping export controls announced by the U.S. in October (see 2210070049) and potentially more restrictions coming soon.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation issued a general license allowing payments and other permitted activities to take place related to insolvency proceedings for two Irish wings of Russian leasing firm GTLK. The two companies are GTLK Europe Designated Activity Co. and GTLK Europe Capital Designated Activity Co. Under the license, any party, including the GTLK companies or their subsidiaries, along with involved practitioners, may "make, receive or process any payments" in connection with the insolvency proceedings. The license expires at the end of the day July 31, 2025.
The U.K.'s Export Control Joint Unit updated six open general export licenses this week to reflect updates to the list of controlled dual-use items. The six licenses involve dual-use exports for repair under warranty, dual-use exports after repair under warranty, dual-use exports after exhibition, low-value shipments, technology for dual-use items, and dual-use items for export to India.
The U.K. added six entries to its Russia sanctions regime July 31 for being connected to the trial against Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was found guilty of spreading false information about the Russian Armed Forces. The listings are for three Moscow City Court judges, two prosecutors and a witness in the trial. The U.K. also amended the entry for Ella Pamfilova, chairperson of the Russia's Central Election Commission.
Investors in Mississippi's public employees' retirement system sued Seagate Technology Holdings for deceiving its investors and causing them to buy Seagate stock at "artificially inflated prices" related to its conduct in illegally exporting hard disk drives to China. (Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi v. Seagate Technology Holdings, N.D. Cal. # 3:23-03711).
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The European Council in a July 28 move amended its Haiti sanctions regime to allow the EU to "autonomously impose restrictive measures" on individuals and entities that undermine democracy in the Caribbean nation. While no parties were sanctioned under the council's announcement, the decision complements sanctions the U.N. Security Council imposed in October, the council said. The move comes in response to the "high levels of gang violence and other criminal activities, sexual and gender-based violence, embezzlement of public funds, ongoing impunity for perpetrators," and the "dire humanitarian situation" in Haiti.
The EU on July 28 added nine individuals to its sanctions regime covering those who commit human rights abuses and sustain armed conflict. The restrictions cover nine Congolese and Rwandan people who are charged with carrying out serious human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the European Council said. The people include members of non-state militant groups M23, Twirwaneho, ADF, APCLS, CODECO/ALC and FDLR/FOCA. In addition, a member of the Congolese Armed Forces and one member of the Rwanda Defense Force were listed.
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 Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned one government official from Bosnia and Herzegovina and three from the Republika Srpska, one of two entities comprising Bosnia and Herzegovina, for threatening the “stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity” of the country. The designations target Nenad Stevandic, speaker and president of the Republika Srpska National Assembly; Radovan Viskovic, prime minister of the Republika Srpska; Zeljka Cvijanovic, a Serb member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina presidency; and Milos Bukejlovic, the Republika Srpska justice minister.