Bipartisan members of the Senate and House introduced a bill on July 16 that would prevent the Trump administration from removing Huawei from Commerce’s Entity List without congressional approval. The bill would also give Congress oversight of Huawei-related export licenses granted by Commerce, allowing Congress to issue a “joint resolution of disapproval” to render any export license inactive.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 8-12 in case they were missed.

Britain is offering to release Grace 1, the seized Iranian oil tanker, if Iran can provide proof the ship is not transporting oil to Syria, United Kingdom Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt said July 13. The ship was originally seized by Gibraltar Port and Law Enforcement on July 4 after British authorities suspected it of shipping oil to Syria, which would have violated European Union sanctions (see 1907080022). The ship was seized in Gibraltar territorial waters.

The U.S. has not yet delivered the $8 billion in emergency arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates it announced on May 24, a State Department official told a Senate committee, causing both Republican and Democratic senators to question why the sales justified an emergency.

Plans to reorganize International Traffic in Arms Regulations are ongoing despite what has been a lengthy legal review of the draft rules, a Directorate of Defense Trade Controls official said while speaking July 9 at the Bureau of Industry and Security annual export controls conference. Through a "series of rules we are trying to make the content of the ITAR more linear and more discernable," said Rob Hart, regulatory and multilateral affairs division chief in the Office of Defense Trade Controls Policy.

A group of U.S. venture capital funds is suing the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, alleging that OFAC’s 50 percent rule is unconstitutional, court records show. The lawsuit says the rule -- which bans companies and people from dealing with entities owned 50 percent or more by a sanctioned party -- unlawfully prevented the plaintiffs from accessing their money, property and investments, violating unreasonable seizure and due process laws under the Fourth and Fifth amendments to the Constitution, respectively.

China plans to impose sanctions on U.S. companies that sell defense products to Taiwan, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said July 12.

The Commerce Department is planning to issue multiple guidance documents on its blacklisting of Huawei Technologies due to the large number of questions from U.S. exporters, Commerce officials said during the Bureau of Industry and Security's annual export controls conference July 9-11 in Washington. Officials said the guidance will address the most common questions BIS has received from U.S. industries.

The Commerce Department is planning to release its upcoming advance notice of proposed rulemaking on foundational technologies before it issues its proposed rules on emerging technologies, said Hillary Hess, director of Commerce’s regulatory policy division in the Bureau of Industry and Security, at BIS's annual export controls conference on July 10.

After more than 25 industry associations urged the Commerce Department to grant more time for comments on its next advance notice of proposed rulemaking for foundational technologies, top Commerce officials said it will consider the request but suggested that U.S. industries have had ample time to prepare comments.