The Bureau of Industry and Security has drafted and on Feb. 4 sent for interagency review an interim final rule to revise its export licensing requirements for certain firearms shipments. BIS in October announced a 90-day suspension of license applications for new gun exports (see 2310270068, 2310300043 and 2311200009). A draft document leaked in December purports to show some of the export control changes under consideration (see 2312260039).
The U.K. government faced pressure from Parliament this week about whether it failed to sanction companies owned by Iran’s state-backed petrochemicals firm, allowing it to evade western restrictions by maintaining accounts with at least two London banks. Members of Parliament called for an investigation and said the government may need more sanctions enforcement resources.
A U.K. citizen was sentenced to 18 months in prison Jan. 31 for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran by exporting and attempting to export dual-use goods to Iran without the required license.
The Treasury Department has been too slow to propose regulations for a congressionally mandated sanctions whistleblower program, a group of bipartisan senators said this week, calling the agency’s lack of progress “unacceptable.”
The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 6 approved a bill that would designate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization following the Yemen-based group’s recent attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea.
U.S. commercial space company Momentus has completed the requirements of a 2021 national security agreement with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., the company announced last week.
The Bureau of Industry and Security sent an interim final rule for interagency review that would make “changes” to the Export Administration Regulations. The rule was sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on Feb. 4. The agency didn’t say what those changes would be.
The U.S. and other governments have so far placed export controls only on advanced semiconductors because they may believe restrictions on a broader, more mature set of chips won’t be effective, experts said this week.
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The Bureau of Industry and Security should get a “significant” funding boost next year so its export control authorities can keep pace with emerging technologies and so its enforcement branch can continue increasing penalties on violators, the top Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee said this week.