As U.S. government regulators continue to face pressure from Congress to more quickly place export restrictions on emerging technologies, the Commerce Department and industry officials are grappling with the potential ethical consequences of controls on a technology that could have groundbreaking medical benefits.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on the “effectiveness” of its licensing procedures for exports and reexports of agricultural goods to Cuba, the agency said in a notice this week. BIS will use the comments as it prepares a biennial report to the Congress on its Cuba-related export licensing, per the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, which requires BIS to report on licensing procedures for the period Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2022. The report must include information on the number and types of licenses applied for, the number and types of licenses approved, the average amount of time elapsed from the license’s filing date until its approval date, and a “description of comments received from interested parties,” BIS said. Public comments, due March 20, should be “as specific as possible,” the agency said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week suspended the export privileges of a Texas resident for illegal exports to Mexico. Carlos Francisco Rodriguez was convicted Nov. 3, 2021, after “knowingly and willfully” trying to smuggle from the U.S. to Mexico about 15,923 rounds of ammunition of “assorted calibers,” BIS said. Francisco Rodriguez was sentenced to two years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $100 special assessment. BIS suspended his export privileges for seven years from the conviction date.
The Commerce Department and DOJ this week launched a new task force to “target illicit actors” and protect critical technologies from being acquired by “nation-state adversaries.” The Disruptive Technology Strike Force -- which will be led by Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security and DOJ’s National Security Division -- will focus on investigating and prosecuting criminal export violations, improving “administrative enforcement” of export controls, coordinating law enforcement actions and “disruption strategies” with U.S. allies and more.
The Bureau of Industry and Security suspended the export privileges of three people this week, including one person who tried to ship controlled items to an entity on the Entity List.
The U.S., the EU and others can take steps to improve how they administer export controls, deliver guidance to industry and more efficiently target dangerous end users, experts said this week. One expert specifically called on the U.S. to revise the Entity List, which should better isolate the worst export control offenders.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week suspended the export privileges of two Canadian residents after they tried to ship controlled goods without the required licenses.
New U.S. export restrictions on six Chinese cities with ties to China’s balloon surveillance program is a “step in the right direction,” but it should have come much sooner, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said. “It shouldn’t have taken a flagrant violation of American territorial sovereignty for BIS to take these measures to prevent [the Chinese Communist Party] from using U.S. technology to compromise our national security,” McCaul, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said last week in a news release.
The Bureau of Industry and Security added six Chinese entities to the Entity List last week because of their ties to China’s “High Altitude Balloons'' intelligence and reconnaissance activities. BIS said the aerospace and technology entities support China’s military modernization efforts, particularly the People's Liberation Army’s aerospace programs, including “airships and balloons and related materials and components.” The move came days after the U.S. shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon in U.S. airspace.
Last year was a “historically busy” period for new trade controls, and that pace “shows few signs of slowing” this year, Gibson Dunn said in a 2022 export control and sanctions recap released this week. The recap provides an overview of last year’s raft of new sanctions and export controls against Russia, China, Iran and others; the Bureau of Industry and Security’s new administrative enforcement policies (see 2206300069 and 2205230018); the State Department’s new compliance program guidelines (see 2212060015 and 2212210049); Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. actions; trade restrictions imposed by the EU and U.K.; and more.