Several federal government agencies issued guidance for doing business in Myanmar Jan. 26. The advisory issued by the departments of State, the Treasury, Commerce, Labor and Homeland Security and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative warns of "heightened risks associated with doing business in the country, and in particular with the military regime." The advisory document warns that businesses and individuals with ties to the military regime may face significant risks, including violations of U.S. anti-money laundering laws and sanctions. The warning strongly suggests that the business community should further review and update their risk assessments associated with continuing to do business with Burma’s state-owned enterprises.
The Commerce Department’s Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee submitted three Wasseanar proposals to Commerce to consider for the 2022 cycle, including two updates to previously submitted proposals. The proposals, which involve Category 6 items (sensors and lasers) on the Commerce Control List, include diode laser bar controls (6A005.d.1.c.1), an updated proposal for green lasers (6.A.5.b.3.a.2) and an updated proposal for certain semiconductor lasers (6.A.5.d.1.a), the committee said during a Jan. 25 meeting.
The Bureau of Industry and Security should update its export controls surrounding infrared technologies to allow U.S. companies to better compete with foreign firms, said Mike Muench, CEO of Seek Thermal, a thermal imaging company. Muench, speaking during a Jan. 25 meeting of the Commerce Department’s Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee, said BIS hasn’t “significantly” updated its infrared technology controls since 2005, when the infrared sector was dramatically different. “That was several generations ago, relatively speaking, in the technology space,” Muench said. “We really believe it's time for us to address some of these changes to allow U.S. firms to be more competitive.”
The House’s America Competes Act of 2022 would revise and introduce a range of new export control and sanctions provisions, including new restrictions on exports of electronic waste-related goods, more designations targeting China for human rights abuses and a repeal of the sunset of the Magnitsky human rights sanctions regime. The bill, unveiled this week as the response to the Senate’s U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, would also require the Biden administration to conduct “periodic” reviews over its export controls for surveillance equipment, urges the administration to reexamine U.S. export policies for countries that supply weapons to terrorist organizations and calls for better harmonization of U.S. export control and sanctions policies with allies.
The European Council condemned recent aggressive action from Russia that has heightened tensions with Ukraine. In Jan. 24 conclusions on the European security situation, the council promised "massive consequences and severe costs" for any greater Russian military aggression against Ukraine, which includes "a wide array of sectoral and individual restrictive measures" that would be taken up by the European Union and its partners.
A California-based semiconductor and telecommunications technology company recently received a warning letter from the Bureau of Industry and Security after it voluntarily disclosed possible export violations. The company, Credo, said it “inadvertently provided three evaluation boards of nominal value” to two customers without required export licenses. Credo submitted a final voluntary self-disclosure to BIS in June and received a warning letter in September with no penalties, according to a January Securities & Exchange Commission filing. Credo didn’t say where the customers were located but said it sells its products in Asia, including in markets where “multiple” companies have been added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List or the military end-user list. The company said it’s “in the process” of improving its export compliance policies and procedures but believes it “remedied the deficiencies that resulted in the apparent violations through additional training, system enhancements and enhanced export controls.”
Six individuals were named in an indictment at the U.S. District Court for Central California for their roles in a scheme to smuggle weapons and ammunition from the U.S. to a Mexican drug cartel, the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California said Jan. 24. Four of the six were arrested Jan. 19 as part of Operation Semper Infidelis conducted by a Los Angeles Strike Force investigation. The operation targeted a weapons trafficking organization that provided firearms and ammunition to the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion. The indictment charges the six individuals with conspiracy to violate federal export laws by shipping the weapons to Mexico.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, recently introduced the Sanctions Targeting Aggressors of Neighboring Democracies (STAND) with Taiwan Act of 2022, a bill that he says "would impose crippling, comprehensive economic and financial sanctions on China in the event that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) or its proxies initiate a military invasion of the island democracy of Taiwan." Sullivan said the bill would prohibit hedge funds, venture capital firms and private equity firms from investing in any Chinese company in a Made in China 2025 priority sector and would sanction Chinese financial institutions and industrial sectors. It also would ban the importation of a good "mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in the People’s Republic of China, or by a person working for or affiliated with an entity or industry wholly financed by the Chinese Communist Party or in which the Chinese Communist Party has a majority ownership interest," unless the president said the importation is necessary for the nation's economic security, national security or public health.
A group of Senate Republicans introduced a bill last week that would redesignate the Yemen-based Houthi militant group as a foreign terrorist organization, reversing a Biden administration decision last year to revoke some sanctions against the group. The bill, introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and sponsored by eight other Republicans, would subject the Houthis to strict financial blocking measures and sanction the group’s leaders. The Biden administration revoked the sanctions, which were imposed under President Donald Trump, because of concerns that they were hindering humanitarian aid to the region (see 2102100016). “I’ve consistently sought to reimpose those sanctions, and it’s now clear that if the Biden administration is unwilling to do so then Congress should mandate that they do,” Cruz said.
The U.N. Security Council on Jan. 24 removed one entry from its ISIL (Da’esh) and al‑Qaida sanctions list. The council no longer lists Tunisian national Khalil Ben Ahmed Ben Mohamed Jarraya.