Chinese government efforts to obscure which firms have public links to the country’s military are making due diligence more complicated, but compliance officers can use several strategies to overcome those challenges, said Colby Potter, a former intelligence official with the State Department.
The Biden administration believes it has struck the right balance in managing technology trade with competitors such as China, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Oct. 23.
The Federal Maritime Commission needs more employees and funding to investigate and penalize violators of shipping laws, especially for costly cases that move to U.S. courts, the commission’s enforcement division director told the FMC this week. Commissioners also said the FMC is closely scrutinizing ocean carriers and terminal operators accused of unfair surcharge practices stemming from the recent labor strikes at U.S. East and Gulf coast port terminals.
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New export controls over U.S. persons’ support for certain foreign military, intelligence and security services activities would place too much strain on both the government and industry compliance departments, disadvantage American exporters compared with their foreign competitors, and may provide no clear benefit to U.S. national security, companies and trade groups told the Bureau of Industry and Security.
Chinese drone-maker DJI Technology Co. is challenging the Pentagon's designation of the firm as a Chinese military company, saying the agency applied the "wrong legal standard," mixed up individuals "with common Chinese names" and relied on "stale alleged facts and attenuated connections that fall short of demonstrating" the company is connected to the Chinese military (SZ DJI Technology Co. v. U.S., D.D.C. # 24-02970).
The Bureau of Industry and Security will add 26 companies and people to the Entity List after the agency said they violated U.S. export controls -- including by supplying sensitive items to China, Iran, Pakistan or Russia -- or failed to comply with U.S. end-use checks.
The Bureau of Industry and Security will soon remove Sandvine Inc., a Canada-headquartered technology software company, from the Entity List after BIS said it took “significant steps” to improve its compliance controls and stop its technology from being used for human rights breaches.
Both a potential Kamala Harris and a potential Donald Trump administration are likely to continue the U.S. government’s increasing focus on sanctions and export control enforcement, even if their approaches to specific trade measures may differ, such as tariffs against China or sanctions against Russia, said Adam Smith, a Gibson Dunn lawyer.
A set of new rules released last week by the Commerce and State departments will reduce licensing requirements for exports of certain space-related items to a range of U.S. trading partners and propose to transfer export control jurisdiction over other space-related defense items from the State Department to the Commerce Department, lowering trade barriers faced by the commercial space industry for years.