President Donald Trump signed into law Aug. 19 a bill that will require an annual report to Congress on certain dual-use license applications, the White House announced.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week removed sanctions that had been placed on Claudia Mercedes Vargas Giraldo, who originally was sanctioned in 2017 for counter-narcotics reasons. OFAC had sanctioned her for ties to Juan Santiago Gallon Henao, a Colombian drug trafficker associated with the criminal group La Oficina de Envigado. OFAC didn't provide a reason for the delisting.
The Census Bureau is updating certain field names in the Automated Export System related to the U.S. Principal Party in Interest address and state of origin, it said in an Aug. 15 email to industry. The agency is changing the name of the “Address of the USPPI” to “Address of Origin” to clarify that the USPPI address “represents the origin of movement, not the address associated with the USPPI [Employer ID Number] or headquarters address,” it said. The change was previewed in a final rule issued by the agency on Aug. 13 (see 2508130022).
Malaysia's July export license mandate for shipments of U.S.-origin advanced AI semiconductors could be a precursor to the U.S. carving out Malaysia from upcoming rules on advanced chip exports, a former Bureau of Industry and Security official said.
The Census Bureau is finalizing a rule that will expand the types of parties responsible for submitting export filings for in-transit shipments that are imported to the U.S. from foreign countries before being exported to another foreign destination. The agency also is adding new language to acknowledge that those parties rely on information from others to make sure the shipments comply with export controls, said it plans to eventually move forward with a new country of origin reporting requirement for in-transit exports, revised its detention for "ultimate consignee" and made other clarifications to the Foreign Trade Regulations.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. last year nearly doubled its site visits and opened multiple investigations on possible filing violations stemming from voluntary disclosures, CFIUS said in its annual report released this week.
Estonia has recently seen an uptick in shipments of imported plywood that it suspects of violating EU sanctions against Russia, the country’s tax and customs agency said this month.
The White House this week extended a national emergency that authorizes certain export control regulations. It was renewed for one year beyond the original Aug. 17 expiration.
The Trump administration plans to maintain strict China-related export controls on the most advanced semiconductors and chip manufacturing equipment, a senior White House official said last week, adding that the U.S. also doesn’t plan to automatically greenlight all H20 chip exports to China.
The European Commission on July 28 imposed antidumping duties on epoxy resins from China, Taiwan and Thailand following an investigation finding epoxy resin imports from these nations harms the EU industry. The investigation originally also included epoxy resins from South Korea, but these goods were removed from the investigation due to a lack of evidence of dumping from South Korea. The AD rates range from 17.3% to 33% for China, and from 10.8% to 11% for Taiwan, and are at 29.9% for Thailand.