The Bureau of Industry and Security recently revoked export privileges for a New Jersey woman for illegal exports to Iran. BIS said Joyce Marie Eliabachus was convicted Oct. 7, 2020 (see 2010070026), after she worked with others to directly or indirectly ship U.S. aircraft components to Iran, including to Mahan Air, the country’s sanctioned airline (see 2008210041). Eliabachus was sentenced to 18 months in prison, one year of supervised release and a $100 fine. BIS denied Eliabachus’ export privileges for 10 years from the date of conviction.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is conducting a review of the types of semiconductors and chipmaking equipment that can be exported to China to determine whether it needs to tighten those restrictions, BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez said, speaking during a Senate Banking Committee hearing last week. He said the agency is considering tightening the “cut-off point” of semiconductors that are subject to strict export licensing requirements.
A potential provision in the bipartisan China package (see 2207120049) that would create an outbound investment screening mechanism received more opposition (see 2206280051 and 2201140038) this week, including from lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee and former U.S. investment screening officials. While opponents of the provision say some form of outbound screening may eventually be necessary to further restrict sensitive technology transfers to China, they also said the current wording is too broad and leaves too many questions unanswered.
Customers and borrowers of financial institutions may start to receive more requests from banks about their export control compliance practices due to a recently issued joint alert by the Treasury and Commerce departments, Crowell & Moring said July 13. The alert also has other implications for customers of certain financial institutions, the firm said, and could hurt their ability to receive lenient penalties from a voluntary disclosure.
The Bureau of Industry and Security recently revoked export privileges for four people after they illegally exported defense items or weapons ammunition.
A U.S. appeals court on July 8 affirmed a 2020 District of Columbia court ruling dismissing FedEx’s lawsuit against the Bureau of Industry and Security, saying the shipping company failed to show BIS acted outside its authority. The court also rejected FedEx’s claims that the agency was using the Export Administration Regulations to apply overly burdensome liability standards on carriers and penalize them even when carriers do not have knowledge of violations.
The Census Bureau soon will launch a fatal alert for filers in the Automated Export System if they are exporting a controlled item without a license, the agency said in a July 7 email to industry. Beginning July 13, the new feature won't allow export filings to proceed if they incorrectly list License Requirement NLR (No License Required) for shipments that require a license under the Export Administration Regulations.
It’s unclear whether the Bureau of Industry and Security's decision to stop differentiating between emerging and foundational technologies under the Export Control Reform Act (see 2205200017) will have any real impact on export controls, law firms said. Torres Trade Law said this month that “only time will tell” if the change allows BIS to impose the controls more quickly, but companies should closely monitor the pace of upcoming restrictions, especially if they’re dealing in “cutting-edge technologies.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security on July 7 sent an interim final rule for interagency review that will clarify how export controls are applied in the context of international standards-setting bodies. The rule will specifically authorize certain items and “releases of technology” to entities on the Entity List “for standards setting or development in standards organizations,” BIS said.
Although Chinese companies with little international exposure may decide to violate export restrictions against Russia, most of the larger companies likely won’t take the risk, experts said. So far, most Chinese companies are complying with the sanctions and only continuing to buy Russian oil and gas, the experts said, despite strong opposition to Western sanctions by the Chinese government.