China agreed to purchase a range of U.S. goods as part of the phase one deal signed Jan. 15, totaling about $200 billion worth of U.S. goods and services over the next two years. The deal covers a long list of agricultural products -- including pork, beef, processed meats, dairy and seafood -- along with increased Chinese imports of U.S. rice, energy products and $120 billion in purchases of U.S. manufactured goods this year.
The Commerce Department should make clear who involved in the import process might be subject to the proposed procedures for how to review transactions that involve information and communications technology and services (ICTS) and are seen as a potential threat, the Express Association of America said in comments. The Commerce proposal is meant as a way for the government to oversee transactions, including importations, seen as risky (see 1911260032). Comments on the proposal were due Jan. 10 and were posted in Commerce docket 2019-0005.
China’s latest draft of its export control law (see 1912260029) represents the country’s first “comprehensive and consolidated” export control legislation and includes regulations for end-user statements, increased penalties and more, according to a Jan. 9 post from Baker McKenzie.
China’s Foreign Ministry criticized a report released this week by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China that called for U.S. sanctions on Chinese officials, saying the commission has no “objectivity or credibility whatsoever.” The report, issued Jan. 8, also called for greater U.S. export controls on surveillance technologies being sent to China and urged the Trump administration to place more Chinese companies and agencies on the Commerce Department’s Entity List due to their involvement in human rights violations (see 2001080039).
The Trump administration should sanction Chinese officials and companies responsible for human rights violations against the country's Uighur population, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said in a Jan. 8 report. The U.S. should also place export controls on a wide range of emerging technologies, add more Chinese agencies to the Commerce Department’s Entity List and make these issues key components of trade negotiations with China, the report said.
The Trump administration successfully persuaded the Dutch government to not renew an export license for a Dutch chip manufacturer, which was poised to sell the technology to China, according to a Jan. 6 Reuters report. The administration “mounted an extensive campaign” to block the sale, which included lobbying from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House officials, who shared “classified intelligence” with the Netherlands’ prime minister, Reuters said. The campaign began in 2018 after the Netherlands granted an export license to ASML, a semiconductor equipment company, to sell “its most advanced machine” to a Chinese customer.
More than half of the sanctions-related enforcement actions issued by the Treasury Department in 2019 involved supply chain violations, signaling that supply chain compliance is one of the most important factors in avoiding violations, according to a December report released by Kharon, a sanctions advisory firm. The penalties are mostly due to deficiencies in three main areas of supply chain compliance, Kharon said: companies that operated in “heightened-risk jurisdictions,” companies that operated “existing and newly acquired” foreign subsidiaries, and companies that showed deficiencies while monitoring actors in its supply chain.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Dec. 9-13 in case you missed them.
A bipartisan group of more than 45 lawmakers urged the Trump administration to impose strict sanctions on China’s treatment of its Uighur population, saying the October addition of 28 Chinese entities to the Commerce Department’s Entity List (see 1910070076) was not enough. “These measures were a first step that do not go far enough in ensuring accountability for China’s government and Communist Party,” the lawmakers said in a Dec. 12 letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., filed cloture Dec. 12 on the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. S. 1790 includes language targeting Huawei and ZTE. McConnell’s cloture motion sets up a likely Senate vote this week. The House approved the measure Wednesday on a 377-48 vote. The House and Senate Armed Services committees released the conference text earlier in the week after months of work to blend the Senate- and House-passed (HR. 2500) measures. The conference version includes a modified text of House-side anti-Huawei language originally sought by Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., that would modify conditions for the Commerce Department to lift the Bureau of Industry and Security’s addition of Huawei to its entity list. It would require Huawei to prove it “sufficiently resolved or settled” supply chain security issues that led to its inclusion on the BIS entity list. The Commerce Department has since approved Huawei-related export licenses for U.S. companies to have their products included in the Chinese telecom equipment maker's products. The conference NDAA also includes Gallagher’s proposal to direct the president to report to Congress on ZTE's compliance with a 2018 agreement that lifted Commerce's ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to ZTE.