Companies subject to U.S. investment screening are hoping the Trump administration takes a more predictable approach to reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., including by focusing on purely national security concerns, industry officials said this week.
President Donald Trump has nominated David Peters to be assistant secretary of commerce for export enforcement at the Bureau of Industry and Security, the White House told Congress April 29.
The U.S. this week said it won’t be prosecuting a NASA contractor for export control violations because the organization quickly self-reported the breaches and demonstrated “exceptional and proactive” cooperation with DOJ’s National Security Division. The announcement came after one of the contractor’s employees pleaded guilty to illegally exporting flight control software to a Chinese company on the Entity List and embezzling at least $161,000 in software license sales from those exports.
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The Trump administration’s plans to reduce export control cooperation with allies, particularly the EU, could lead to more differences between the two jurisdictions' export systems, especially for controls targeted toward China, lawyers said this week.
James Rockas is no longer with the Bureau of Industry and Security after being appointed by the Trump administration to the position of deputy undersecretary in January, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Rockas left BIS last week and moved to the State Department, a Commerce Department spokesperson confirmed. He was replaced by Joe Bartlett, the BIS legislative affairs director.
Japanese lawmakers this week urged the Trump administration to continue engaging with allies on economic security issues and to not close off America from Japanese investment, saying Japanese companies will help grow American exports and reduce the U.S. trade deficit.
The Treasury Department is exploring several ways to improve its screening of inbound and outbound investment, Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender said April 24.
A new executive order aimed at reducing regulatory restrictions around weapons sales could speed up exports to allies and remove other trade barriers, law firms said, although key questions remain about how U.S. agencies will implement it.
The Bureau of Industry and Security said April 24 that it added 18 entities to its Unverified List after it was unable to verify the “legitimacy and reliability” of the parties through end-use checks, including their ability to responsibly receive controlled U.S. exports. It also removed five companies from the list.