The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is revising its trade regulations to add and remove items from the U.S. Munitions List and to clarify the control scope of others. The changes, outlined in an interim final rule released Jan. 16 and effective Sept. 15, include new defense articles that DDTC said should be subject to export controls under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and delete others “that no longer warrant inclusion” or that will soon become subject to the Commerce Department’s licensing jurisdiction.

Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Treasury secretary, said Jan. 16 that the U.S. should institute a “very rigorous screening process” to ensure its outbound investment does not help China catch up to the U.S. in such key technology areas as artificial intelligence, computing chips, quantum computing and surveillance.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined a Miami-based real estate firm and its owner more than $1 million after the agency said they helped two sanctioned Russian oligarchs transfer their luxury condominiums to their non-sanctioned family members. The firm, Family International Realty LLC, “engaged in a willful scheme” to evade U.S. sanctions against Russia, OFAC said, and earned about $180,000 in commission fees for helping to manage the properties.