The Trump administration should make sure its replacement to the Biden-era AI diffusion rule (see 2505130018) allows U.S. companies to compete fairly with foreign firms, industry officials said at the Federal Communications Bar Association annual seminar last week.
The Bureau of Industry and Security quietly revised its announcement of new guidance on Huawei Ascend chips to remove language that said using those chips “anywhere in the world” is a violation of U.S. export controls.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is looking to continue moving away from proposed rulemakings and instead issue most new rules as interim final or final, said two people with knowledge of the agency’s plans.
The Center for a New American Security has named Kurt Campbell, former deputy secretary of state, and Anne Neuberger, former deputy national security adviser, to its board of directors. Both Campbell and Neuberger join CNAS after serving in the Biden administration. Campbell helped oversee U.S. efforts to reduce defense trade restrictions with Australia and the U.K. under the AUKUS partnership (see 2404030050 and 2409180025) and worked on Russia-related sanctions issues (see 2407300033).
Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and John Curtis, R-Utah, introduced a bill May 14 that would require the president to determine whether certain judges and other officials in Hong Kong violated human rights and should face sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act or the Hong Kong Autonomy Act.
The U.S. and Switzerland agreed this month to better share sanctions enforcement information, according to a memorandum of understanding released last week. The memorandum, signed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, said they "express their intention to share information related to the monitoring, enforcement, and promotion of compliance with sanctions measures in force on both sides."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week removed a former Lebanon-based small business owner from its Specially Designated Nationals List after he sued the Treasury Department over his designation in December, arguing that OFAC unfairly delayed a decision on his delisting request.
The U.S. government needs more exemptions for close allies to quickly buy controlled defense items and weapons, both under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and the Foreign Military Sales program, witnesses and lawmakers said during a congressional hearing on defense exports last week. Without significant ITAR and FMS reform, several lawmakers said they fear more countries will source more of their defense purchases from other countries, including potentially China.
China this week said it’s temporarily reversing April announcements that added dozens of U.S. companies to the country’s unreliable entity list, which blocked those firms from participating in import and export activities in China, and its export control list, which blocked them from receiving certain dual-use items (see 2504090017 and 2504040024). Beijing will suspend those restrictions for 90 days from May 14, the Ministry of Commerce said, according to unofficial translations.
A bipartisan group of eight House members May 15 introduced a companion to a Senate bill that would require export-controlled advanced computing chips to contain location verification mechanisms. The legislation is intended to prevent the diversion of chips to “adversaries” such as China.