The State Department this week issued a minor correction to last month's final rule that will add and remove items on the U.S. Munitions List and clarify the control scope of others (see 2508260011). The agency said “an asterisk was inadvertently omitted from the amendatory text.”

The State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls will again renew relaxed export restrictions for certain defense goods and services involving Cyprus, it said in a final rule released this week and effective Oct. 1. The agency has issued the renewal each year since 2020 (see 2309130028), suspending its policy of denial for exports, reexports and transfers of defense articles on the U.S. Munitions List to Cyprus. The move also suspends the policy of denial for retransfers and temporary imports destined for or originating in Cyprus and brokering activities involving Cyprus. The latest renewal expires Sept. 30, 2026.

Although the Bureau of Industry and Security published a rule last month to ease certain export controls on Syria (see 2508280029), it also “retained significant parts” of its long-standing restrictions against the country, which could create new compliance challenges for some exporters, Troutman Pepper said in a client alert.

H.R. McMaster, former national security adviser during the first Trump administration, said he disagrees with the government's plan to approve exports of Nvidia's advanced H20 chips to China (see 2508220003) and hopes the administration soon develops a more coherent economic security strategy.

The U.S. isn't doing enough to compete with China on technology, partly because of its failure to meaningfully restrict outbound investments and its willingness to let American companies continue to sell advanced chips to China, said Derek Scissors, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is working on an interim final rule that it said would streamline its export restrictions for drone exports. The agency sent the rule for interagency review on Aug. 21. BIS didn't release more information.

A new law that will require the Bureau of Industry and Security to provide Congress with annual reports on certain export licensing information could lead to more "scrutiny" over BIS licensing activity, including through congressional hearings, Akin said in a client alert this week. The firm also said it could increase congressional requests to certain exporters or give rise to more legislation "regarding the scope of controls, parties to be added" to the Entity List or the Military End User List, or "requests for revocation of licenses."

The State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is seeking comments on an information collection involving nontransfer and use certificates information collections. Companies must submit those certificates to DDTC with any manufacturing license agreement or technical assistance agreement that involves "significant military equipment or classified defense articles, including classified technical data," the agency said. The foreign consignee or foreign end-user and applicant -- and in some cases a foreign government official -- must fill out this form to certify that the foreign end-user won't reexport, resell or dispose of the defense articles "outside the foreign country named as the country of ultimate destination" or to "any other person." Comments are due Oct. 24.

The U.S. should pass the Chip Security Act, a bill that would mandate location tracking for U.S. exports of certain advanced chips (see 2506250027), because it would allow American firms to boost exports of chips without “losing visibility or control over where those chips end up,” argued Kit Conklin, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick spoke with Bureau of Industry and Security employees during a town hall meeting Aug. 19, where he discussed their "vital work supporting Trump’s America First Trade Policy, which boosts U.S. industry, secures supply chains, and protects American tech from foreign exploitation," the agency said in a social media post. "BIS enforces export controls, closes loopholes, and keeps innovation domestic, driving thriving industries and national security."