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 Department of Defense recently released a new set of recommendations designed to speed up military goods exports under its Foreign Military Sales program, an initiative long requested by defense companies. DOD said the recommendations highlight “key FMS pressure points” and are aimed at “breaking historical inefficiencies in the United States' transfer of defense articles and services to foreign allies and partners.”
A Latvia-based bank reached a $3.4 million settlement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control to resolve allegations it violated U.S. sanctions relating to Crimea, OFAC said June 20. Swedbank Latvia AS, a subsidiary of Sweden-based Swedbank AB, allowed a customer to use its e-banking platform from an internet protocol address in Crimea to send payments to persons in Crimea through U.S. correspondent banks, OFAC said, which resulted in 386 violations of U.S. sanctions.
The EU this week released an economic security strategy, detailing plans to improve export controls over sensitive technologies and study whether it needs better guardrails around inbound investments and new restrictions around outbound investments. The strategy could lead to new proposals surrounding export controls and investment restrictions by the end of the year.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is working “day-in and day-out” on a final rule that will make tweaks to its China-related chip export controls released in October (see 2210070049), said BIS Senior Export Policy Analyst Sharron Cook. But a public release of the rule isn’t imminent -- the agency hasn’t yet sent the changes to be reviewed by other agencies, said Hillary Hess, regulatory policy director at BIS.
A group of European countries not in the EU aligned with two recent European Council sanctions moves under its Iran and Syria sanctions regimes.
Even as Europe comes to see China as a systemic rival, the entanglement of the German and Chinese economies continues unabated, and what "de-risking" should look like is hotly contested, witnesses told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission at a hearing late last week.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said advocates for free trade agreements who argue that 95% of customers are outside our borders are myopic.
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., introduced a bill last week that could lead to new sanctions against people or entities tied to “forced organ harvesting” in China. The text of the bill, which so far has seven additional Republican co-sponsors, wasn’t yet available.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Mexico-based Hernandez Salas transnational criminal organization, a human smuggling group, and several of its members and affiliated entities. The June 16 designations target Mexican national Ofelia Hernandez Salas, the organization’s leader, and Mexican nationals Raul Saucedo Huipio, Jesus Gerardo Chavez Tamayo, Fatima Del Rocio Maldonado Lopez and Federico Hernandez Sanchez for working with the organization. OFAC also sanctioned Mexican entities Hotel Plaza and Hotel Las Torres to “conduct human smuggling activities.”