Although adopting a 50% rule for the Entity List could allow U.S. export controls to capture more bad actors, it could also cause unintended business consequences and may make it more challenging for the Bureau of Industry and Security to add companies to the list, said Matthew Axelrod, the agency’s former export enforcement chief.
The Democratic leaders of two key House committees said this week they’re “deeply concerned” about the Bureau of Industry and Security potentially pivoting away from traditional export control dialogues with allies and asked BIS to respond to oversight questions before the end of next week.
The Trump administration confirmed this week it will not renew a general license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control that has allowed Chevron to wind down certain oil activities in Venezuela.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang last week criticized U.S. export controls on advanced chips, saying restrictions against China have so far been a “failure.” He called on the government to allow Nvidia and other chip companies to more freely sell to China, which he said will help the U.S. economy.
An upcoming fast-track process for certain deals filed with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. could apply to a broad range of American allies and transactions, although key questions remain about what foreign investors will need to do to qualify, law firms said this month.
The U.K. should change its foreign investment screening process to better support British technology firms and shouldn't hurry to agree to increased U.S. restrictions against China, the U.K. Parliament was told last week.
The Treasury Department issued a new general license last week that it said gives “immediate” sanctions relief to Syria, “effectively lifting sanctions” on the country in the aftermath of last year’s fall of the Bashar Assad regime.
The U.S. is continuing to push Malaysia to strengthen its guardrails around sensitive American technologies at risk of being diverted to China, a top Malaysian trade official said this week. He also acknowledged that Malaysia and other Asian countries could soon be pressured to choose between either partnering economically with Washington or Beijing.
Beijing this week threatened to penalize any person or company that complies with new export control guidance from the Bureau of Industry and Security about advanced Huawei chips, saying the guidance constitutes “discriminatory restrictive measures against Chinese companies.”
Although the Bureau of Industry and Security announced last week that it won’t be enforcing the Biden-era AI diffusion rule, companies should reassess their due diligence practices to prepare for a replacement rule and make sure they’re complying with existing chip controls, law firms said, which they expect the Trump administration to aggressively enforce.