An Indian national violated U.S. export controls by lying on at least one export application for dual-use aerospace technology, telling the government the item would be exported to India when he actually planned to send it to Russia, according to a DOJ indictment unsealed last week and the sworn affidavit of a Bureau of Industry and Security special agent.
The U.K. Office of Foreign Sanctions Implementation provided an overview of "red flags" that may indicate when Russian oil shipments have been "manipulated to appear as non-Russian through the use of fabricated or falsified certificates of origin." The guidance also lays out "potential mitigation measures" to help British entities shield themselves from the practice.
Chinese lidar company Hesai Technology filed an amended complaint in its suit against its designation as a Chinese military company after the Pentagon relisted the company (see 2410230018), arguing that the decision is "just as unsubstantiated and weak as the original one that they recently refused to defend" (Hesai Technology Co. v. Department of Defense, D.D.C. # 24-01381).
The Commerce and State departments are extending the public comment periods for one interim final rule and two proposed rules that are expected to revise U.S. export controls to remove a range of export barriers faced by the commercial space industry (see 2410180027 and 2411070024). Comments on all three rules originally were due Nov. 22, but the agencies said they are extending that deadline to Dec. 23 after the “regulated community” asked for more time.
The EU asked the World Trade Organization to establish a compliance panel regarding Colombia's tariffs on frozen fries from the EU, the Directorate-General for Trade announced Nov. 14. The bloc decided to make the move after consultations between the parties fell through, the Directorate-General said.
The Federal Maritime Commission is asking the parties to a West Coast ocean shipping and port agreement to provide more information about their alliance before an updated version takes effect, it said in a notice released this week.
The Trump administration would be unwise to expand its export controls to cover older-generation semiconductors destined to China, but it could pursue new restrictions over less advanced versions of the tools used to make certain chips, technology policy analysts said in interviews, particularly if it’s willing to be more aggressive than the Biden administration in talks with the Dutch and Japanese.
China renewed its antidumping duties on imports of nitrile butadiene rubber from South Korea and Japan, the country’s commerce ministry announced Nov. 8, according to an unofficial translation. The duties, originally imposed in 2018, range from 12% to 37.3% for South Korean companies and 16% to 56.4% for Japanese companies. The rubber has oil, water and heat-resistant properties and has uses in the industrial and mechanical industries. The duties will remain in place for five years from Nov. 9.
The Bureau of Industry and Security and its technical advisory committees should do more public outreach to make sure companies are aware of important export control updates sometimes buried in Federal Register notices, a BIS committee heard last week. That outreach is especially critical for companies working with industrial chemical processing equipment, a committee member and industry lawyer said, which has commercial uses but is increasingly drawing BIS scrutiny for its military capabilities, including in chemical weapons.
U.K. negotiators flew to Seoul this week to begin talks on upgrading a trade deal with South Korea that was negotiated more than a decade ago. The U.K. specifically wants to put in place “digitalised customs procedures,” simplified rules of origin and “reduced or zero tariffs” for exports to South Korea, adding that it wants to take better advantage of South Korea’s “booming import demand.”