The Bureau of Industry and Security will add 37 entities to the Entity List this week for supporting China’s military modernization efforts or Iran’s weapons program and defense industries. The entities, located in China, Georgia, Malaysia and Turkey, will be subject to a license review policy of presumption of denial for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations. No license exceptions will be available for the entities, BIS also added three additional aliases under Huawei’s Entity List entry. The additions take effect Dec. 17.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is still reviewing export controls on facial recognition software, surveillance-related products and other goods controlled for crime-control reasons after requesting feedback on the potential restrictions in July 2020, said Hillary Hess, BIS’s regulatory policy director. Although no new restrictions have been announced, Hess said new controls for items described in the rule, including crime-control goods that may be used for human rights abuses, are still being considered. “We have been looking at that,” Hess said during a Dec. 14 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. “It’s definitely on our plate.” In the 2020 rule, BIS solicited feedback on possibly imposing new licensing requirements for biometric systems for surveillance, non-lethal visual disruption lasers, long-range acoustic devices and other surveillance-related technologies and goods (see 2007160021). In comments, several technology companies warned BIS against imposing overly broad, unilateral export restrictions that could hurt U.S. competitiveness, while a human rights advocacy group and a U.S. lawmaker called for new export restrictions and suggested existing controls should be strengthened (see 2010090044).
Although the Bureau of Industry and Security’s new cybersecurity controls are an improvement over the restrictions proposed in 2015, the agency should still take several steps to ensure they don’t impede U.S. technology companies and inhibit information sharing in the cybersecurity sector, industry said this month. But at least one commenter said BIS should strengthen the controls by restricting a broader set of technologies and require more due diligence steps for exporters.
The U.S this week imposed an arms embargo and new, broad export restrictions on Cambodia in response to government corruption and human rights abuses. The restrictions, released Dec. 8 by the Commerce and the State departments and effective Dec. 9, will apply more stringent controls on a range of dual-use and military-related exports to the country (see 2112020015).
The Commerce Department will soon launch a new feature to automatically warn filers if they are exporting a controlled item without a license, an improvement the agency hopes leads to better due diligence among exporters. The agency will deploy the Automated Export System feature Jan. 13, 2022, the Census Bureau said in a Dec. 6 email to industry. The announcement has been expected since October (see 2110180027). The new feature will alert exporters that incorrectly list License Requirement NLR (No License Required) for shipments that require a license under the Export Administration Regulations. The message will appear with the response code 66Q and will serve as a warning message to filers for the first six months after the Jan. 13 effective date, Census said. After the six-month period, the agency will upgrade the warning to a “fatal” error, which will block the exporter from moving forward with the filing. Exporters having difficulties with the error message or reporting their information correctly but still receiving the message should email the Bureau of Industry and Security at ECDOEXS@bis.doc.gov, Census said. Exporters should ask about the Export Control Classification Number associated with their export and any other “additional licensing authorization that may be required,” Census said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Nov. 30 revoked export privileges for five people after they illegally exported weapons or ammunition and for another person for their ties to a foreign terrorist organization.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security is violating Belgian shipping company Exmar Marine's Fourth and Fifth amendment rights by blocking its ability to sell an aircraft it owns, Exmar alleged in a Dec. 1 complaint. Arguing its case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Exmar said BIS has no legal authority to stop the sale of the aircraft and that such action to do so cuts against constitutional protections against unreasonable seizure and violations of due process (Exmar Marine, NV v. Bureau of Industry and Security, D.C. Cir. #21-3141).
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on the impact of the Chemical Weapons Convention on commercial activities during 2021, BIS said in a notice. The agency is specifically looking for feedback on how activities involving Schedule 1 chemicals were affected to determine whether the “legitimate commercial activities and interests of chemical, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical firms” were “harmed” this year by CWC decisions. Comments are due Jan. 3, 2022.
The U.S. has “repeatedly stretched the national security concept and abused state power to hobble Chinese companies,” a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson said last week. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security on Nov. 26 added 27 foreign organizations and individuals to its Entity List, including eight technology entities based in China, to prevent U.S. emerging technologies from being used for Beijing’s “quantum computing efforts that support military applications" (see 2111240014). The BIS action “severely hurts the interests of Chinese companies, recklessly undermines the international trade order and free trade rules, and gravely threatens global industrial and supply chains,” the ministry spokesperson said. “China reserves the right to take necessary countermeasures,” he said. “We will firmly defend Chinese companies’ legitimate rights and interests with all necessary measures.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on areas and priorities for export control cooperation between the U.S. and the European Union, the agency said in a notice. The comments will help inform the work of the recently established U.S-EU Trade and Technology Council and its export control working group, including efforts to harmonize controls over dual-use items and emerging technologies (see 2109290083 and 2110010036). Comments are due Jan. 14, 2022.