A European Union Parliament resolution adopted Jan. 21 calls on the EU to sanction people and entities involved in the arrest and imprisonment of Alexei Navalny in Russia earlier this month. Although the EU sanctioned several Russian officials last year for poisoning Navalny (see 2010150008), a Russian opposition politician, the Parliament said those measures need to be expanded and “significantly” strengthened.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. will maintain its focus on Chinese investment, prioritize enforcement and continue to tweak its jurisdiction under the Joe Biden administration (see 2009170017 and 2010270050), trade lawyers said. CFIUS also will likely continue to see an increase in filings, the lawyers said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is working on several new proposed rules for emerging technologies and is still sifting through industry comments on potential controls for surveillance technologies, the agency said in its 2020 report to Congress this month. Along with its work on emerging technologies last year, the agency said it nearly doubled its civil penalties from 2019, processed about 3,000 more export license applications, and met with a range of trading partners and multilateral export regimes to discuss improvements to export controls.
The State Department withdrew a proposed rule that would have permanently amended the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to allow employees involved in ITAR-related activity to work remotely. The rule, which was sent for interagency review Dec. 3 (see c), was withdrawn Jan. 20, according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The White House on Jan. 20 announced a withdrawal of pending rules issued by the previous administration to allow incoming officials to review and approve them. The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls had considered making the telework change permanent because it proved popular with industry (see 2004240017, 2007280014 and 2012100009). A DDTC spokesperson declined to comment.
The State Department announced penalties on two foreign entities and one foreign official for illegal transfers under the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act. The agency said the three transferred items subject to multilateral control lists that contribute to weapons proliferation or missile production, in a notice. The entities are China-based Ningbo Vet Energy Technology, Ningbo Zhongjun International Trade and their subsidiaries. Also sanctioned was Rim Ryong Nam, a North Korean official based in China and working for North Korea’s Munitions Industry Department. The two entities and the official are barred from purchasing items controlled on the U.S. Munitions List and by the Arms Export Control Act. The State Department also will suspend any current export licenses used by the entities and official and bar them from receiving new export licenses for any goods subject to the Export Administration Regulations. Government agencies are barred from entering into procurement contracts with them. The measures took effect Jan. 13.
Even though the Joe Biden administration will have a very different approach to trade than did the Trump administration, that will not mean a wholesale rejection of what its predecessors did, analysts said during a Center for Strategic and International Studies webinar Jan. 21.
The United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended 15 sanctions entries under its regime for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and removed two entries from its regime for Iraq, according to Jan. 19 notices. The U.K. updated identifying information for the 15 entries listed under the DRC and removed entries for Zuhair Talib Abd-Al-Sattar Al-Naqib and Amir Rashid Muhammad Al-Ubaidi under Iraq.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for Jan. 11-15 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The State Department updated its review policy for approving certain exports of precision-guided weapons to better ensure the items will not be used to harm civilians or abuse human rights. The change will affect license application reviews for direct commercial sales (DCS) of U.S. precision-guided munitions (PGM), the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls said this week, which will better align the review policy for DCS with the agency’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
The State Department should clarify to the Commerce Department that Electronic Export Information filings are not required for exports of certain licensed technical data controlled under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the American Association of Exporters and Importers said in a Jan. 8 letter. Even though the export of that data is authorized by an ITAR exemption and exempt from Automated Export System filings, the AAEI said “regulatory modifications made to support Single Window automation inadvertently” created uncertainty about whether AES filings are required. The uncertainty stemmed from the removal of language in the ITAR that “previously indicated no AES filing was required for such exports,” AAEI said. “This inconsistency causes confusion within industry, potentially impacts trade statistics, and may cost companies in business processing time,” the group said. AAEI urged the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls to clarify the filing requirement “either through issuance of an amendment” or “informally through coordination with” the Census Bureau. DDTC didn’t comment.