The U.S. and other G-7 member states plan to soon announce a host of new sanctions and trade restrictions against Russia, including new restrictions targeting Russia’s industrial and technology sectors. The countries also plan to announce enforcement actions relating to Russia’s sanctions evasion efforts, which will include new additions to the Commerce Department’s Entity List.
The U.S. on June 28 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 for illegally acquiring controlled U.S. items for Iran. The financial sanctions, announced by the Treasury and State Department, target more than 100 entities and 50 people, including Russia’s State Corporation Rostec, a “massive” state-owned technological, aerospace and military-industrial enterprise. Treasury also issued several new general licenses.
In its recently issued Forced Labor Enforcement Strategy, DHS said CBP is making use of the Bureau of Industry and Security's export enforcement arm to identify Xinjiang entities that are involved in forced labor. CBP uses a “range of sources and research tools, both public and non-public,” to identify the entities, DHS said in its strategy document, including the interagency end-user review committee, which selects the parties that are added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List.
Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology published a report this week on China’s state-operated laboratory system, which is used to drive the country’s innovation and research and ultimately reduce its dependence on foreign technogloies. The report includes a dataset of 469 state labs, including a table of labs with at least one "supporting unit" subject to U.S. sanctions or export controls, such as the Commerce Department’s Entity List.
The Bureau of Industry and Security hasn’t given up on a rule to clarify how U.S. companies can participate in standards-setting bodies that have members designated on the Entity List, a senior BIS official said this week. Despite yearslong clamoring for the clarification from technology associations and companies, the rule is facing a lengthy internal review process not only from other agencies but also from different bureaus within the Commerce Department, said Hillary Hess, BIS’s regulatory policy director.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
After receiving criticism this week for its lack of progress in a possible investigation of illegal exports to Huawei, a Bureau of Industry and Security spokesperson said the agency is “committed to fully investigating any allegation” of violations of the foreign direct product rule, including illegal shipments to the Chinese technology giant. The agency has come under criticism for not yet penalizing Seagate Technologies for potentially illegally exporting goods to Huawei (see 2206070011).
The U.S. should soon impose “hard-hitting” Magnitsky sanctions against Chinese artificial intelligence surveillance company Hikvision for its role in human rights violations in Xinjiang, which could help deter other companies from supporting the region’s surveillance complex, said Dahlia Peterson, a research analyst at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology. Although the U.S. added Hikvision to the Entity List in 2019 (see 2205090014), placing the company on the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals List would “be a step forward,” Peterson said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security made several changes, corrections and clarifications to its export regulations and added a host of new Russian and Belarusian entities to its Entity List, it said in notices. One change adds a license requirement for certain medicine and food shipments to the two countries, and another change allows BIS to publicize export enforcement charging letters before a case is resolved.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is adding 71 entities to its Entity List for supporting Russia’s military or for trying to illegally acquire U.S.-origin goods. The additions include 70 entities based in Russia and one based in Belarus, BIS said, and 66 of them are now subject to BIS’ Russia/Belarus foreign direct product rule. All the entities will require a license for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations. No license exceptions will be available, and BIS will review applications under a policy of denial. Exports of certain food and medicine will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, the agency said. The additions, which will be published in the Federal Register June 6, take effect June 2.