The U.K. this week fined a fuel transportation company about $6,600, or 5,000 pounds, for failing to respond to a request for information from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. OFSI said U.K.-registered Svarog Shipping & Trading Company Limited, which does business in the maritime oil shipment sector in Cyprus, didn’t respond in time to OFSI questions last year despite receiving “multiple reminders” about the deadline.
The Treasury Department will create a new fast-track process for certain deals filed with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., the agency announced May 8, saying the process will help encourage more investments in American businesses from close U.S. allies.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is planning to replace the Biden-era AI diffusion rule that is scheduled to take effect May 15, an agency spokesperson said May 7.
The European Commission this week outlined a new plan to gradually phase out imports of Russian oil, gas and nuclear energy while diversifying European energy imports by buying more from other markets. The “roadmap” details a series of proposals the commission plans to make in the coming weeks, including one that would ban all new and existing Russian gas spot contracts by the end of the year and all remaining Russian gas imports by 2027.
Companies must spend more resources on export compliance, and governments need to do a better job of coordinating and updating multilateral export control lists, in order to prevent Russia, Iran and other “rogue actors” from buying as many sensitive dual-use goods, researchers said this week.
Although the Bureau of Industry and Security's AI diffusion export control rule has sparked broad pushback from some U.S. allies, it appears to take a “strong step” toward improving BIS efforts to prevent chip smuggling to China, said researchers with the Center for a New American Security. If the Trump administration decides to tweak parts of the rule or revoke it altogether, the researchers warned, the U.S. will need to find other ways for BIS to better enforce its chip controls.
Companies subject to U.S. investment screening are hoping the Trump administration takes a more predictable approach to reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., including by focusing on purely national security concerns, industry officials said this week.
The U.S. this week said it won’t be prosecuting a NASA contractor for export control violations because the organization quickly self-reported the breaches and demonstrated “exceptional and proactive” cooperation with DOJ’s National Security Division. The announcement came after one of the contractor’s employees pleaded guilty to illegally exporting flight control software to a Chinese company on the Entity List and embezzling at least $161,000 in software license sales from those exports.
Copa Holdings, the parent company of Latin American airlines Copa Airlines and Wingo, recently disclosed to the U.S. government that it may have violated U.S. sanctions against Cuba.
The Trump administration’s plans to reduce export control cooperation with allies, particularly the EU, could lead to more differences between the two jurisdictions' export systems, especially for controls targeted toward China, lawyers said this week.