Space industry associations and companies largely welcomed a recent State Department proposal to modernize U.S. space-related export controls, although they asked for several clarifications, fewer export control guardrails and an extended timeline to allow space firms to update their compliance programs.
The Commerce Department’s fall 2024 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security features a host of new rules that could soon update U.S. export controls, including restrictions on aircraft engines, biological equipment and reporting requirements for certain weapons sales, AI chips.
The Bureau of Industry and Security fined a U.S.-based electronics manufacturer and supplier for the semiconductor industry $180,000 after it admitted to exporting 11 shipments to Russia without a license. BIS said the company, Indium Corporation of America, which has factories in Asia and Europe, failed to resolve multiple red flags involving shipments of solder wires, solder ribbon and solder preforms to a Russian defense contractor.
California-based electronics parts manufacturer and supplier Integra Technologies agreed to pay the Bureau of Industry and Security $3.3 million after admitting to violating U.S. export controls on Russia, telling BIS that it didn’t realize the transistors it was shipping needed an export license.
President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Jacob Helberg, a commissioner with the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission, to be the State Department’s next undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment. Helberg will “guide State Department policy on Economic statecraft, promoting America's Economic security and growth, and American technological dominance abroad,” Trump said in a Dec. 10 post on Truth Social.
China appears to be preparing to use its own set of extraterritorial export controls against the U.S. in response to the Biden administration’s latest chip restrictions and Entity List additions, an official with the U.S.-China Business Council said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is working on a set of FAQs for its recently released China-related semiconductor export control rules (see 2412020016), which should clear up confusion about when certain new foreign direct product rule restrictions take effect and how they apply, a BIS official said this week.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is adding eight companies to the Entity List that it said are “enabling human rights violations,” including by supplying sensitive technology or military items to the Chinese, Russian and Myanmar militaries. The additions, outlined in a final rule released Dec. 10 and effective Dec. 11, target technology companies and supplier firms based in each of those three countries.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Dec. 11 will add eight companies to the Entity List for “enabling human rights violations,” including by supplying sensitive technology or military items to foreign governments that are subject to strict license requirements. The entities are located in Myanmar, China and Russia, the agency said in a final rule released Dec. 10. They will be subject to license requirements for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations, and licenses will be reviewed under a presumption of denial.
The State Department is expecting to see a large uptick by the end of the year in the number of authorized users under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations' new AUKUS exemption, a senior agency official said.