Companies should expect the U.S. government to continue to prioritize enforcement of export controls in the coming months, including by issuing new penalties for export violations, said Matthew Axelrod, the Bureau of Industry and Security’s top export enforcement official. He also revealed that BIS is using a new tool to better screen foreign parties listed on license applications, and he said a recent shift in how the agency uses metrics has allowed it to devote more attention to cases involving the most sensitive technology.
BIS Entity List
The Entity List is a BIS trade restriction list consisting of entities deemed a national security concern and therefore subject to license requirements for exporting specified items, such as some U.S. technologies. Inclusion on the Entity List is more severe than being placed on the Unverified List.
The Bureau of Industry and Security will add 26 companies and people to the Entity List after the agency said they violated U.S. export controls -- including by supplying sensitive items to China, Iran, Pakistan or Russia -- or failed to comply with U.S. end-use checks.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week added eight companies to its Unverified List after it was unable to verify the “legitimacy and reliability” of the entities through end-use checks, including their ability to responsibly receive controlled U.S. exports. It also removed two companies from the list after BIS said it was able to successfully conduct end-use checks.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has removed multiple companies from a list of flagged foreign suppliers accused of illegal sales to Russia, including one after the company told BIS it was added by mistake, Export Compliance Daily has learned.
Nearly a quarter of the 123 new entries the Bureau of Industry and Security will add to its Entity List this week are Chinese suppliers that the agency named in private red-flag letters to U.S. companies earlier this year.
Silvaco Group, a California-based company that provides software solutions for semiconductor design, received a cautionary letter from the Office of Foreign Assets Control after disclosing possible sanctions violations involving Russia.
The House Appropriations Committee has included several export control provisions in a new report accompanying its version of the FY 2025 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Bill.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week added six entities to the Entity List for either helping to train China’s military, evading U.S. government end-use checks or shipping export-controlled items to Russia. The agency also updated its Unverified List, adding 13 new parties and removing eight others, including one Russian company that it transferred to the Entity List earlier this year. Both rules took effect July 3.
The Bureau of Industry and Security will add six entities to the Entity List and update its Unverified List to include 13 new parties and remove eight others, the agency said in a pair of rules released July 2 and effective July 3.
A new strategy by the Bureau of Industry and Security to add a set of addresses -- instead of company names -- to the Entity List could lead to screening challenges for exporters, industry officials told the agency this week.