The EU is growing increasingly concerned about Beijing's use of export controls and trade remedies as retaliatory tools against other nations, a senior European Commission official said this week.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has terminated the agency’s Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness along with 13 other advisory committees, the Commerce Department said on its website. Lutnick “determined that the purposes for which fourteen of the discretionary advisory committees were established have been fulfilled, and the committees have been terminated” effective Feb. 28.
Reps. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., and Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., introduced a bill March 24 that would sanction Pakistan Army Chief of Staff Gen. Asim Munir under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act for allegedly undermining democracy, such as by imprisoning political opponents. The Pakistan Democracy Act was referred to the House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees.
A bipartisan group of six House members led by Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., reintroduced a bill on March 25 that would sanction the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees, which participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is poised to receive $171 million in funding in FY 2025, down 10.5% from FY 2024, as part of the Trump administration’s “illegal” cuts to national security programs, Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., said March 25.
American allies, including the EU, should introduce their own versions of the U.S. foreign direct product rule and the October 2022 U.S. persons controls that restricted additional sensitive semiconductor exports (see 2212210059), the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a new report.
New guidance published this week by the European Commission covers how EU sanctions apply to certain shipments of Russian liquified natural gas. The FAQs offer insight into how EU companies can determine whether the LNG they’re transporting is of Russian origin, how they can request permission to transport those shipments, and more.
The EU this week launched a new online sanctions help desk, featuring information on new sanctions, country-specific guidance, events, tips, compliance lessons learned and more. The help desk is geared toward helping small and medium-size companies carry out due diligence, and it will provide guidance on both EU and U.N. sanctions.
China this week published new rules, effective March 23, for the implementation of its anti-foreign sanctions law, clarifying what types of property Beijing can freeze in response to people and companies that violate the law, who China can target with the restrictions, and more.
The Senate voted 60-31 late March 24 to confirm former U.S. ambassador to Mexico Christopher Landau as deputy secretary of state. Fifty Republicans, nine Democrats and one independent backed his nomination, while 31 Democrats were opposed. Nine senators didn’t vote. A State Department website indicates Landau was sworn in for his new role March 25. Landau testified at a hearing on his nomination in early March that the Trump administration plans to build international support for using sanctions to counter Iran’s nuclear weapons program (see 2503040038).