The U.S. and its allies should be sharing more export control information to better align their licensing decisions, said Thea Kendler, the Bureau of Industry and Security's assistant secretary for export administration. Although the U.S. is already sharing some of that information through the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council to keep Russia from acquiring sensitive technologies and other items for its military, Kendler said more can be done.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has been receiving “a lot” of questions about what is considered a “major component” under the agency’s foreign direct product rule, a Commerce Department official said. Some exporters have asked BIS to issue a list of examples of major components for the purposes of the FDP rule, the official said, which restricts certain foreign-produced items when they are produced by a plant or by a “major component” of a plant that is a direct product of certain U.S. technology or software.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on June 30 announced several policy changes designed to strengthen its administrative enforcement tools and penalties. Under the changes, outlined at the agency’s annual update conference by Matthew Axelrod, the agency’s top enforcement official, BIS will raise penalties for more serious violations; revise its policies surrounding its no-admit, no-deny settlements; begin offering settlement agreements that don’t include fines; and revise how the agency processes voluntary disclosures.
The Bureau of Industry and Security doesn’t have export control officers in Russia but has other means to monitor violations and to assess license applications, said Matthew Axelrod, the agency’s top export enforcement official. Although BIS can’t conduct end-use checks in the country, it can still turn to “open source reporting” and other intelligence when considering a license, Axelrod said. “We have a lot of different tools at our disposal to help inform the licensing process,” he said during a June 29 news conference.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week announced a new initiative to improve the agency’s outreach to universities. The plan, outlined in a June 28 memo to export enforcement officials, is aimed at prioritizing outreach at universities that have an “elevated risk profile” and bolstering export control training at those schools. BIS also plans to assign dedicated agents to certain schools and conduct more “background briefings” with researchers on national security and technology risks.
Although the U.S. and allies are discussing creating a new multilateral export control framework, it’s too soon to tell whether those talks will result in a formal regime, said Alan Estevez, undersecretary of the Bureau of Industry and Security. He said the group of countries has “momentum” toward a new framework, but they haven’t yet agreed to establish a formal organization to replace some of the existing multilateral regimes, such as the Wassenaar Arrangement.
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The U.S. this week announced a host of new sanctions targeting Russia’s defense industrial base, including export restrictions against entities helping Moscow evade U.S. export controls and new financial sanctions targeting state-owned companies. The sanctions target more than 100 entities and 50 people supporting Russia’s defense industry and add 36 entities to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, including six for supporting Russia’s military.
The Commerce Department published its spring 2022 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security, including two new mentions of rules that could result in new emerging technology export controls.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on June 24 suspended the export privileges of three Russian airlines for violating U.S. export controls against Belarus. The agency issued 180-day temporary denial orders for Nordwind Airlines, Pobeda Airlines and Siberian Airlines, BIS said, banning all three airlines from participating in transactions subject to the Export Administration Regulations.