The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking comments on an information collection related to requests for participation in foreign boycotts against countries friendly to the U.S., according to a notice. BIS analyzes the information to “note changing trends” and decide on actions to take to prevent participation in “foreign restrictive trade practices and boycotts.” Comments are due Feb. 10, 2020.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Dec. 2-6 in case you missed them.
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security's upcoming set of proposed rules on emerging technologies may not be published until early next year, another sign of the delay that has plagued the rules since Commerce first announced them more than a year ago. Commerce has three emerging technology rule proposals in “various stages of clearance,” Hillary Hess, director of the BIS Regulatory Policy Division, said during a Dec. 10 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. The agency hopes to publish one proposal before the end of the year, Hess said, but urged committee members to take any prediction with “at least a handful of salt.”
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking comments on procedures under which parties can request to be removed from Commerce’s Entity List and Unverified List, according to a Dec. 10 notice in the Federal Register. The information collection also includes procedures for requesting a “modification” to an entry on either list, BIS said. Comments are due Feb. 10, 2020.
The Commerce Department is seeking comments on proposed revisions relating to the Automated Export System, the Census Bureau said in a notice. The revisions include provisions for the “early release of preliminary steel mill import statistics” and plans by both Census and the Bureau of Industry and Security to draft a notice of proposed rulemaking to clarify the responsibilities of parties in routed and standard export transactions (see 1907100053). Census said it is “working with BIS to receive concurrence in order to publish the NPRM." Census also said the two agencies aim to publish the NPRMs “around the same time” to “allow the trade community an opportunity to review the proposed requirements as they relate to both filing and licensing responsibilities.” Census said its draft rule “has received concurrence” from the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Comments are due by Feb. 7, 2020.
An Iranian businessman was sentenced to 46 months in prison for illegally exporting carbon fiber from the U.S. to Iran, the Justice Department said Nov. 14. Behzad Pourghannad worked with two others between 2008 and 2013 to export the carbon fiber to Iran from third countries using falsified documents and front companies, the agency said.
A Lebanese energy equipment company was fined $368,000 by the Bureau of Industry and Security after it illegally reexported generators to Syria, according to a settlement agreement signed Nov. 27. Ghaddar Machinery allegedly committed 20 violations of the Export Administration Regulations from 2014 to 2016, totaling about $730,000 worth of exports, BIS said. Ghaddar agreed to pay the penalty in five installments through November 2021. Failure to make the payments could result in more penalties, according to the settlement agreement, including a two-year denial of export privileges.
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security renewed an export denial order for Mahan Airways because the airline continues to violate the order and the Export Administration Regulations, BIS said in a notice. The Iranian airline has been on the banned list since 2008, and the notice renewed the ban for 180 days, BIS said. Since the order was last renewed June 5 (see 1906060054), the U.S. has discovered that the airline is now operating a U.S.-origin Boeing 747 between Iranian airports in Tehran, Kish Island and Mashhad. The aircraft “appears to be” one of three planes Mahan illegally acquired through Blue Airways of Armenia and United Kingdom-based Balli Group, BIS said. In addition, Mahan was involved in the illegal export of a U.S.-origin atomic absorption spectrometer from the U.S. to Iran via the United Arab Emirates in November. The spectrometer is subject to the EAR, and the export violated the terms of Mahan’s denial order, BIS said.
Export Compliance Daily is providing this recap of sanctions and export controls enforcement over the past year. Intended to assist export compliance professionals, lawyers and others in the export world stay up to date with current enforcement trends, this guide includes summaries of prominent enforcement actions by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Controls, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, and the Justice Department since Export Compliance Daily began publishing in March 2019.
A Lebanese energy equipment company was fined $368,000 by the Bureau of Industry and Security after it illegally re-exported generators to Syria, according to a settlement agreement signed Nov. 27. Ghaddar Machinery allegedly committed 20 violations of the Export Administration Regulations from 2014 to 2016, totaling about $730,000 worth of exports, BIS said. Ghaddar agreed to pay the penalty in five installments through November 2021. Failure to make the payments could result in more penalties, according to the settlement agreement, including a two-year denial of export privileges.