President Donald Trump signed the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, S. 1790 into law, with provisions targeting tech companies Huawei and ZTE (see 1912130027), the White House announced on Dec. 20. The law bars the Trump administration from lifting the Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security's addition of Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei to its export entity blacklist without congressional approval. The law also requires reports to Congress on waivers issued to companies doing business with Huawei as well as ZTE's compliance with a 2018 agreement that lifted Commerce's ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to ZTE.
Exports to China
China's Foreign Ministry criticized the Commerce Department’s efforts to restrict sales of emerging technologies (see 1912160032), saying the U.S. is “abusing export control measures” and “impeding” cooperation between the two countries. A ministry spokesperson said the U.S. is “over-generalizing” the concept of national security as justification for the export controls, which are aimed at preventing countries, including China, from acquiring access to sensitive U.S. technologies. “Don't think you can ever deter China's growth as well as scientific and technological innovation by limiting exports of high-end technologies to us,” the spokesman said during a Dec. 18 press conference. “You are being too arrogant.”
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Dec. 9-13 in case you missed them.
BOSTON -- If the Commerce Department follows through on plans to expand the limits of the Export Administration Regulations to further control foreign shipments to Huawei, it will have a “dramatic” impact on international supply chains, said Kevin Wolf, a trade lawyer with Akin Gump and Commerce’s former assistant secretary for export administration. The measures, which Commerce confirmed it was considering earlier this month (see 1912100033), include expanding the Direct Product Rule and broadening the de minimis rule to make more foreign-made goods subject to the EAR.
A Canada-based contractor for the U.S. Navy and the company’s president were fined for their involvement in a scheme that included unlicensed exports to China and giving false information to the Commerce Department’s Office of Export Enforcement, the Justice Department said in a Dec. 4 press release. The company, OceanWorks International Corp., and its president, Glen Omer Viau, were fined $84,000 and $25,000, respectively. Viau was credited for time served.
An Iranian businessman was sentenced to 46 months in prison for illegally exporting carbon fiber from the U.S. to Iran, the Justice Department said Nov. 14. Behzad Pourghannad worked with two others between 2008 and 2013 to export the carbon fiber to Iran from third countries using falsified documents and front companies, the agency said.
The Dec. 3 House passage of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019 will have serious repercussions for U.S.-China trade talks if the bill becomes law, a China Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson threatened on Dec. 4. H.R. 649 and the companion S. 178 that cleared the Senate in September demand tough U.S. sanctions on China over reports of government-run detention centers imprisoning millions of Muslim-minority Chinese citizens in Xinjiang.
China announced sanctions on five U.S. non-government organizations and said U.S. military ships and aircraft will not be allowed to visit Hong Kong, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Dec. 2. The sanctions were in response to the U.S. passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law last week (see 1911290012). The sanctioned organizations include the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Republican Institute, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House.
President Donald Trump signed bills that could remove Hong Kong from receiving special customs and export controls treatment and restrict exports of rubber bullets, tear gas and other items to the region. The bills (see 1911200036), signed Nov. 27, led to backlash from China, which said the country is prepared to retaliate. “We urge the U.S. to not continue going down the wrong path, or China will take countermeasures, and the U.S. must bear all consequences,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Nov. 28.
When asked on "Fox & Friends" Nov. 22 whether he intends to sign or veto two bills on Hong Kong (see 1911200036), President Donald Trump didn't directly answer, instead saying, “We have to stand with Hong Kong, but I’m also standing with President Xi [Jinping], he’s a friend of mine. He’s an incredible guy, but we have to stand … I’d like to see them work it out, OK?"