Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., introduced legislation last week aimed at modernizing the Bureau of Industry and Security’s aging information technology systems.
Japanese authorities last week arrested the representative of a trading company for allegedly illegally exporting controlled items subject to sanctions on Russia, Baker McKenzie said in a client alert. The Russian citizen's arrest marks the first of its kind in Japan involving illicit exports to Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, urged the Commerce Department this month to make several changes to “strengthen” the Bureau of Industry and Security’s new interim rule restricting firearms exports.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has completed a round of interagency review for a proposed rule that could lead to changes to the Export Administration Regulations to “control U.S. persons support of security end users and end uses.” The rule also “proposes restrictions on exports, re-exports, and transfers (in-country) to these end users and end uses,” BIS said. The agency completed its interagency review July 12.
The U.S. is trying to convince more of its allies to increase export controls on advanced semiconductors and chip making equipment destined to China, but some haven’t committed, in part because they’re worried about possible trade retaliation from Beijing, said Alan Estevez, undersecretary of the Bureau of Industry and Security.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is revising its regulations so that export controls don’t “impede or jeopardize” U.S. participation in international standards-setting bodies and other standards-related activities (see 2406180014), the agency said in an interim final rule released July 17.
The Census Bureau plans to soon issue a rule that could clarify regulations governing in-transit shipments that travel through the U.S. from foreign countries before being exported to another foreign destination.
The State Department’s recently published spring 2024 regulatory agenda mentions several rules that could update defense export controls under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, including one that would update ITAR language surrounding defense services and another to revise controls for certain circuit boards and semiconductors.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky on July 9 denied a U.S. defense manufacturer's motion to dismiss allegations that it criminally smuggled weapons by selling drawings of a rare earth permanent magnet used in F/A-18 Super Hornets to China (U.S. v. Quadrant Magnetics, LLC, W.D. Ky. # 3:22-CR-88-DJH).
A Dutch construction equipment supplier will pay nearly $2 million after the Netherlands accused it of violating sanctions against Russia, the country’s public prosecutor office said last week. The Dieseko Group reached the settlement after the Netherlands said it sold pile drivers and related parts in 2015 and 2016 for the construction of the Crimean Bridge, which linked Russia and Crimea.