U.S. companies that sell defense products or services to foreign countries or entities must report all offsets agreements greater than $5 million to the Bureau of Industry and Security by June 15, the agency said in a notice. Companies also must report information on offsets transactions completed “in performance of existing offsets commitments for which offsets credit” of $250,000 or more “has been claimed from the foreign representative,” the notice said. Commerce is asking for reports of offsets transactions that took place during calendar year 2023.
American chip company Applied Materials has received multiple U.S. government subpoenas in recent months -- including one from the Bureau of Industry and Security -- asking for information about its exports to Chinese customers.
The State Department’s Defense Trade Advisory Group is accepting membership applications from subject-matter experts in the U.S. defense industry, the agency said in a notice this week. Members serve a consecutive two-year term and submit recommendations to improve the agency’s export control regime. Applications must be emailed or postmarked by March 26.
The State Department approved a potential military sale to Germany for $281 million worth of “Ultra-High Frequency” radios and related equipment, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Feb. 27. The principal contractor will be L3Harris Global Communications.
The Federal Maritime Commission added Hede (Hong Kong) International Shipping and removed COSCO Shipping Lines (Europe) from its list of controlled carriers, the agency said in a Feb. 26 notice.
The Border Trade Alliance urged House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in a Feb. 26 letter, to work with his congressional colleagues to prevent a lapse in appropriations for federal agencies in early March, saying a government shutdown would “exacerbate an already precarious situation at the U.S. southern border.”
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee’s Export Modernization Working Group published a draft recommendation and a summary of its recent work ahead of the COAC’s March 6 meeting (see 2402150016).
Most companies applying for funding under the Chips Act (see 2309220035 and 2306280038) aren’t going to get the money they want, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said this week. The agency has gotten more than 600 “statements of interest” from semiconductor companies, she said, and Commerce has had to have “tough conversations” with those businesses about what kind of funding they can realistically expect.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and members of the President’s Export Council will travel to Bangkok March 13-14 to “identify opportunities” to strengthen economic, trade and supply chain ties between the U.S. and Thailand, the Commerce Department announced last week. Raimondo will also use the trip to participate in a hybrid Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity ministerial with IPEF partners, the first such meeting since the negotiations ended on the proposed IPEF Clean Economy Agreement, Fair Economy Agreement and overarching Agreement on IPEF, and also the first since the signing ceremony for the IPEF Supply Chain Agreement in November (see 2402010026).
The Bureau of Industry and Security recently released a fact sheet to mark the one-year anniversary of its Disruptive Technology Strike Force, the group formed with DOJ to pool resources toward investigations and prosecutions of high-priority export control cases. In the last year, the group has charged 14 cases involving alleged sanctions, export control violations or illegal transfers, issued temporary denial orders against 29 entities and helped “numerous parties” be placed on the Entity List and the Specially Designated Nationals List. It also said it recently added enforcement teams in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the Western District of Texas, and the Southern District of Georgia.