The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security will hold a webinar Dec. 8 to discuss information technology modernization updates. The webinar will include an overview of recent updates to DDTC’s Defense Export Control and Compliance System, BIS’s “IT Modernization roadmap” and the two agencies’ “collaboration efforts on data sharing and customer experience opportunities.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on information collection related to foreign availability procedures. BIS collects foreign availability information to determine whether U.S.-controlled exports are available from a foreign country “in sufficient quantity and of comparable quality so as to render the control ineffective.” Comments are due Jan. 23.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on an information collection involving reports of requests for restrictive trade practices or boycotts. BIS said it uses the information to “monitor requests for participation in foreign boycotts against countries friendly to the U.S.” and analyzes the information to “note changing trends and to decide upon appropriate action to be taken to carry out” U.S. policy of discouraging boycotts of U.S. allies. Comments are due Jan. 23.
Vishay Precision Group, a U.S. sensor technology company, may have violated U.S. export filing requirements, the company said in a Securities & Exchange Commission filing this month. The company said it submitted a voluntary self-disclosure to the U.S. government after it determined that “certain export shipments of products from one of its subsidiaries” didn’t comply with filing requirements of the Bureau of Industry and Security's Export Administration Regulations and the Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade Regulations.
The U.S. needs to abandon the current model of multilateral export control regimes and move toward control agreements with smaller groups of allies in specific technology areas, said Liza Tobin, the National Security Council’s former China director. Tobin, speaking during an Emerging Technology Technical Advisory Committee meeting last week, also said the U.S. should look to impose technology-specific controls on items destined to China rather than end-use- and end-user-based controls, which are proving increasingly ineffective.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Nov. 17 updated its Pakistan due diligence guidance. The guidance includes information on Pakistan-related license requirements for controlled items destined for nuclear or missile activities, restrictions on U.S. persons activities and best practices for screening customers in Pakistan.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on an information collection related to voluntary disclosures for violations of the Export Administration Regulations. Comments on the information collection are due Jan. 17.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week renewed the temporary denial order for Russia's Rossiya Airlines. BIS first suspended the export privileges of the airline in May (see 2205200008), barring it from participating in transactions with items subject to the Export Administration Regulations. The agency renewed the denial order for another 180 days on Nov. 15 after finding Rossiya continues to illegally operate aircraft subject to the EAR, including for flights between Russia and Turkey.
The Bureau of Industry and Security’s new Unverified List policies, which allow the agency to move a company from the UVL to the Entity List if it can’t complete an end-use check within 60 days, likely will lead to an uptick in companies added to the Entity List, said Nazak Nikahtar, former acting BIS undersecretary. Nikakhtar said she believes many Chinese companies added to the UVL won’t participate in an end-use check that meets the U.S.’s standards.
Companies should expect “robust enforcement” from the Bureau of Industry and Security surrounding its new China-related chip controls (see 2211010042 and 2210070049), which could include more end-use checks and additions to the Entity List, said Stephenie Gosnell Handler, a Gibson Dunn trade lawyer, speaking during a webinar hosted by the law firm this week. She said companies should “ensure their red flag indicators are up to date and are being vetted appropriately.”