European companies are looking for clarity around new rules that may require them to boost due diligence efforts among their non-EU subsidiaries and insert language in contracts that bars reexports of sensitive goods to Russia and Belarus, lawyers said this week.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has been looking into how U.S. computing chips have ended up in Russian weapons, hopes to issue a new report on its work before year’s end, the panel’s chairman said Nov. 20.

The U.S. this week issued a host of new sanctions against Russia, targeting Gazprombank, the country’s largest remaining non-designated bank, along with more than 50 smaller banks tied to Moscow, more than 40 securities registrars Russia has used to evade sanctions and 15 Russian finance officials. The agency also issued new and updated general licenses and warned foreign banks that they could be sanctioned for participating in a Russia-linked financial messaging system.

EU ministers this week officially adopted a ban on products made with forced labor, marking one of the final steps in a yearslong lawmaking process designed to eliminate EU imports, exports or other sales of those goods (see 2404230048 and 2403050035). The new regulations will apply about three years after publication in the Official Journal of the EU.

European lawmakers are concerned more aggressive China-related policies put in place by the incoming Trump administration, including around investment screening, could lead more Chinese companies to shift their investments to Europe, possibly raising national and economic security risks for EU member states, they said this week.

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The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined a U.S. citizen more than $1 million for evading U.S. sanctions against Iran by using foreign money services businesses to buy an Iranian hotel.

The U.S. government should create a joint interagency task force led by the national security adviser to develop better ways to prevent China from obtaining sensitive dual-use technology from the U.S. and its allies, a bipartisan congressionally mandated commission said Nov. 19.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. soon will be able to impose higher penalties, collect a broader range of information from parties involved in non-notified transactions, fine companies and issue subpoenas in a wider set of circumstances, and gain other expanded powers as part of a final rule expected to be formally issued by the Treasury Department in the coming days.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, who is expected to ascend to the committee’s chairmanship when Republicans take control of the Senate in January (see 2411120060), said he views China as the panel’s biggest challenge.