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.
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.
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security made three technical corrections to its November notice that added 22 entities to its Entity List (see 1911120025). The corrections add dates and change the wording of entries for Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
Huawei is urging suppliers to move operations offshore to avoid U.S. sanctions and export controls, which would violate U.S. law, according to a Dec. 3 Reuters report. The Chinese technology giant has been “openly advocating” for companies to escape the jurisdiction of U.S. controls so sales can continue, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Reuters. “Anybody who does move the product out specifically to avoid the sanction ... that’s a violation of U.S. law,” Ross said. “So here you have Huawei encouraging American suppliers to violate the law.”
The Department of Commerce published its fall 2019 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security. The agenda includes a new mention of its intent to potentially control certain additive manufacturing equipment, or 3D printing, used in “energetic materials” as part of BIS’s effort to restrict sales of emerging technologies (see 1911210051). The notice of proposed rulemaking aims to gather feedback from industries while “discussions are ongoing” at the Wassenaar Arrangement. BIS said it aims to issue the proposed rule in November.
A bipartisan group of senators asked the Commerce Department to reverse its decision to approve Huawei-related export licenses (see 1911200041), saying the move poses significant national security risks. The senators, led by Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in a Nov. 21 letter to President Donald Trump that they are “concerned that the approval of additional, more permanent licenses will allow Huawei to fully resume its engagement with certain U.S. firms without an adequate assessment of the risks to national security.”
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Nov. 12-15 in case they were missed.
The Commerce Department’s decision to renew the temporary general license for Huawei “won't have a substantial impact on Huawei's business either way,” the company said in a Nov. 19 statement. Huawei said the 90-day reprieve (see 1911180036), which authorizes a narrow set of transactions with the U.S. despite Huawei’s placement on the Entity List, “does not change the fact that Huawei continues to be treated unfairly.”
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross named Cordell Hull deputy undersecretary for industry and security and Joe Semsar the deputy undersecretary at the International Trade Administration, a Commerce spokesperson said Nov. 18. The two were appointed to their positions Nov. 12, the spokesperson said.
The Commerce Department renewed the temporary general license for Huawei and 114 of its non-U.S. affiliates until Feb. 16. The renewal is effective immediately and is the license’s second extension since it was issued in May. The license authorizes certain specific activities and transactions, including those related to existing network operations of mobile services, despite Huawei's addition to the Entity List.