DOJ is now regularly asking companies about their compensation clawback policies, including in investigations into corporate violations of sanctions or export controls, said Jamie Schafer, a trade lawyer with Perkins Coie. She said companies should have a plan for how they will use compensation clawbacks if they need to submit a voluntary disclosure, which could help them mitigate potential penalties.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

The Biden administration needs to soon update its China-related chip export controls and apply “full blocking sanctions” to Huawei and China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., top House Republicans recently said in a letter to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Those measures and others will address what the lawmakers said has been a ”failure” by the administration and the Bureau of Industry and Security to properly enforce the Oct. 7 chip restrictions, which placed new license requirements on a host of chip-related exports and activities involving China.

The Bureau of Industry and Security added 49 entities, mostly from China, to the Entity List for shipping microelectronics to Russian consignees connected to the country’s defense sector. The entities are semiconductor companies, technology businesses, logistics companies and others, and also include companies based in Estonia, Finland, Germany, India, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the U.K.

If the Treasury Department doesn't clarify the due-diligence steps that will be required of dealmakers under the agency’s upcoming outbound investment prohibitions, the Biden administration risks chilling a broad range of U.S ventures in China and incentivizing foreign companies to seek funds elsewhere, law firms and industry associations said in comments to the agency.

LONDON -- A looming Bureau of Industry and Security rule that would expand the agency’s restrictions on U.S. persons' activities is “going to be a compliance challenge that I don't think we're ready for,” said Robert Monjay, a former BIS analyst and export control executive with Intel.

U.S. allies in Europe and Asia would support new efforts to coordinate on export controls for advanced technologies, including semiconductors, panelists said during an event this week hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But they also said those same countries don’t believe the world needs a new dual-use multilateral export control regime to replace the Wassenaar Arrangement, even though Russia remains a member and can block proposals.

LONDON -- The Bureau of Industry and Security is increasingly sending out is-informed letters to warn companies that some of their currently unrestricted products need an export license before they can be shipped, said Nancy Fischer, a Pillsbury trade lawyer. Some companies receiving the letters view them as unfair, Fischer said, particularly because BIS doesn’t always send similar letters to their competitors.

The Bureau of Industry and Security dismissed appeals from a Turkish airline and a Russian tour company after both said they were wrongly implicated in a temporary denial order the agency renewed against a separate Russian airline in June.

LONDON -- The Bureau of Industry and Security is noticing a sharp uptick in low-level U.S. microelectronics exports to countries that weren’t involved in semiconductor-related shipments before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, said Liz Abraham, senior adviser for international policy at BIS. She said BIS is looking at creative ways to potentially restrict some of those shipments, even though many of them are designated under the Export Administration Regulations as EAR99 -- items that generally don’t require an export license.