Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Dec. 30 - Jan. 3 in case you missed them.
The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls issued a series of frequently asked questions on Jan. 6 as part of guidance related to U.S. people exporting defense services abroad. The guidance clarifies questions related to registration and authorization requirements and details the process for obtaining authorization.
The Senate Finance Committee has recommended the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement come up for a vote in the Senate as a whole, voting 25-3 Jan. 7 to advance the deal. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters that the USMCA implementing bill also has to get buy-in from the Budget, Environment and Commerce committees, though they don't have to hold mark-up hearings, as the Finance Committee did. He predicted that if the articles of impeachment aren't sent over to the Senate yet, “by next week, for sure,” there would be a floor vote, but if the articles arrive, he said, it could be the end of January before a vote.
President Donald Trump threatened sanctions against Iraq following a Jan. 5 vote by the country's parliament to expel U.S. troops. The threat comes amid growing tension in the Middle East as Iran further decommitted from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and Europe scrambled to keep the deal from disintegrating, which could trigger European snapback sanctions against Iran.
The Commerce Department is amending the Export Administration Regulations to control exports of software designed to “automate the analysis of geospatial imagery,” Commerce said in an interim final rule. The software will be controlled under the Export Control Classification Number 0Y521 series -- a temporary holding classification that lasts for one year from the day the final rule is published. Although the agency believes it is in the U.S.’s national security interest to “immediately” control this software, Commerce is seeking comments on the interim final rule. Comments are due March 6.
A Texas federal court vacated a $2 million penalty imposed on ExxonMobil by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control for sanctions violations, in a decision issued Dec. 31. The Northern Texas U.S. District Court ruled that OFAC did not provide ExxonMobil “fair notice that their conduct was prohibited.” The decision stems from a lawsuit filed in August (see 1908280031) against OFAC, in which ExxonMobil alleged its business dealings with Rosneft, the Russian oil company owned by sanctioned oligarch Igor Sechin, did not warrant a sanctions penalty.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for 2019 in case they were missed.
Although multilateral export regimes share many of the same concerns over emerging technologies, coming to an agreement on the controls is proving increasingly difficult, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Regimes are facing issues reaching consensus due to the large number of “membership combinations” across multiple regimes, which have to take into account the needs of every state, and an inability to coordinate, the report said.
President Donald Trump tweeted that he will sign “our very large and comprehensive Phase One Trade Deal with China on January 15” at the White House. "High level representatives of China will be present" and Trump is planning to go to Beijing "at a later date" to begin talks around Phase Two, he said. An administration official previously said the signing would be done between the U.S. trade representative and China's vice premier, and would happen in the first week of January (see 1912130035).
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Dec. 23-27 in case you missed them.