The Bureau of Industry and Security this week suspended the export privileges of a California resident for the illegal sale of a controlled defense item to China and two others for illegally exporting firearms to Canada and Mexico.
A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said China "welcomes" the Bureau of Industry and Security's recent move to drop 33 entities from its Unverified List after the agency carried out end-use checks (see 2308210015). The move, which included Chinese companies, shows that both countries can address "specific concerns through communication based on mutual respect," the spokesperson said. In a separate release, the country's Ministry of Commerce said the BIS decision is "conducive to the normal trade between Chinese and American companies and is in line with the common interests of both parties," according to an unofficial translation. BIS made the move after an agency policy change that lets it move companies from the UVL to the Entity List if BIS is unable to conduct an end-use check on those companies within 60 days.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Aug. 21 renewed a February temporary denial order that suspended the export privileges of Russian company Radiotester OOO and owner Ilya Balakaev for illegally shipping counterintelligence and military-related devices to Russia and North Korea (see 2302240042).
British semiconductor company Arm, in its initial U.S. public offering this week, said it’s facing uncertainty from U.S. and U.K. export controls and doesn’t expect to receive an export license to ship certain high performance processor cores to China. The company also said it’s expecting to see slower growth in its China sales revenue due to several factors, including various government-imposed “trade and national security policies.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week removed 33 entities from its Unverified List -- including Chinese technology companies and universities -- after it was able to successfully complete end-use checks. The entities include 27 based in China, two in Pakistan and one each in Indonesia, Singapore, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The agency also removed two Russian entities from the UVL because it placed both on the more restrictive Entity List last year.
Republicans last week urged the Biden administration against meeting with Beijing to discuss semiconductor export controls, saying the U.S. should not negotiate its policies with China and should instead enact tougher restrictions. They specifically asked Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who is considering a trip to China, to pledge that the U.S. plans to increase its export restrictions against the country.
The Bureau of Industry and Security sent a proposed rule for interagency review that could lead to new export restrictions related to illegal cyber-related activity. The rule, sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Aug. 16, is titled: “Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency with Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Aug. 17 released a correction to its final rule last week that expanded the scope of its nuclear-related export controls on China and Macau (see 2308110019). BIS said there was an "inadvertent error in one of the regulatory instructions for that rule," and the notice issued by BIS this week "corrects that inadvertent error."
The Bureau of Industry and Security made several changes to the Export Administration Regulations this week to align its controls with decisions made at the multilateral Nuclear Suppliers Group in 2019 and 2022. The amendments, outlined in a final rule effective Aug. 18, revised five existing Export Control Classification Numbers under the Commerce Control List to alter or clarify the scope of certain controls and make technical fixes to other ECCNs.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is extending its public comment period for an information collection involving its “simple network application process” and “multipurpose application form.” The process and form allows exporters to submit license applications, commodity classification requests, encryption review requests and other “notifications” to BIS. Comments were previously due Aug. 11 (see 2306090018), but the agency is allowing for another 30 days.