The Bureau of Industry and Security this week expanded its export controls against Russia and Belarus to cover a broader range of items and Harmonized System codes, including more industrial materials and aircraft parts. The agency also added new controls to better restrict exports used in Iran’s drone production, revised the de minimis treatment for certain military and spacecraft-related items, added a new license requirement exclusion and more.
Ilya Kahn, a citizen of the U.S., Russia and Israel, was arrested on Jan. 17 for allegedly aiding a scheme to illicitly ship sensitive technology from the U.S. to a sanctioned Russian business, DOJ announced. Kahn was charged in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California with conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act.
The State Department gathered an undisclosed “group of countries” last week to “strategize” on ways to curb the supply of parts to Iranian drones, a department official said Jan. 17.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned two companies, in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates, along with their vessels, for shipping Iranian goods on behalf of a financial facilitation network for the Houthi rebels.
The U.S. fined German software company SAP SE more than $200 million for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, saying it bribed government officials in South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Indonesia and Azerbaijan to secure business contracts. The company agreed to a nearly $100 million settlement with the SEC and faces a $118.8 million criminal penalty, along with a forfeiture, as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with DOJ.
The Federal Maritime Commission is granting ocean carriers special permission to immediately hike rates on containers that are being rerouted around the southern cape of Africa, in response to concerns over possible Houthi rebel attacks on usual routes through the Red Sea.
China again extended its Section 301 retaliatory tariff exclusion period for 12 U.S. agricultural products, including certain shrimp, whey, fishmeal, alfalfa and hardwood products, USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a recent report. The exclusions, which were set to expire Dec. 31, will continue through July 31. Beijing originally imposed the tariffs in retaliation for Section 301 tariffs announced by the Trump administration on certain Chinese goods.
The Federal Maritime Commission finalized several changes to its rules for carrier automated tariffs, including one that would bar carriers from charging a fee to access their tariff systems and others that aim to increase transparency around certain “pass-through” charges assessed to shippers. The FMC also abandoned a proposed change that would have required the documentation for a broader range of containers to include the name of all non-vessel operating common carriers with touchpoints to that cargo, a proposal that faced strong opposition from multiple trade groups and logistics companies.