Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this week threatened sanctions against Chinese banks if they facilitate payments that aid Russia’s military and urged Beijing against placing unclear restrictions on sales from certain U.S. chip companies, saying American firms want more transparency in China.
The U.S. and the EU continued to discuss export controls, investment screening and other economic statecraft tools during the sixth meeting of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council last week, saying they have made progress harmonizing export licensing decisions and plan to soon launch a new investment screening initiative. The two sides also renewed a mechanism to pinpoint and prevent global semiconductor supply chains issues and announced a new forum to coordinate on critical minerals trade.
U.S. and EU officials speaking in Belgium didn’t divulge many details about what they expect to come from the sixth meeting of the Trade and Technology Council this week, saying mostly that they hope the forum will continue no matter who wins upcoming elections in the U.S. and Europe (see 2403120066).
Banks are facing rising pressure from regulators to catch red flags that may signal export control evasion, lawyers and industry officials said this week. As that pressure mounts, they said many financial institutions still struggle to understand how much and what type of due diligence is needed to catch customers that may be violating export controls.
The EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council likely will continue if former President Donald Trump is reelected, European Commission officials said at a briefing April 3. The sixth TTC meeting takes place April 4-5 in Leuven, Belgium. It's the last of this political cycle, given U.S. and European elections later in the year. The EC doesn't expect too much disruption of its work, which includes deliverables on 6G, platforms, standardization, artificial intelligence and quantum computing, officials said.
The International Trade Commission is preparing for new Chinese export controls on germanium and gallium to have a potentially “significant” impact on global supply chains, it said in a recently issued executive trade briefing (see 2307050018).
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China’s Ministry of Commerce criticized the latest semiconductor export control rule released by the U.S. last week, saying it has “overextended the concept of national security, arbitrarily modified rules, and tightened control measures.” That the U.S. issued an export control update “less than half a year after the last time” has caused “huge uncertainty.”
U.S. government officials at the Bureau of Industry and Security’s annual conference last week underscored the value of Mandarin-language skills when conducting due diligence on potential Chinese customers.
A Bureau of Industry and Security rule released last week (see 2403290060) that updated and corrected portions of the agency’s October semiconductor export controls (see 2310170055) also added a new license exception and offered clarifications to export guidance issued by BIS over the last year. The changes take effect April 4, and comments are due by April 29.