The Trump administration has no plans to ease existing sanctions on Russia while it seeks a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war, a State Department nominee told a Senate panel June 10.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is planning to soon loosen some export controls on Syria, a move that would align with the Treasury Department’s lifting of certain financial sanctions against the country last month (see 2505230073).
The Bureau of Industry and Security is drafting a new regulation that could create a 50%-ownership threshold rule for parties on the Entity List, a BIS official said this week.
Five House and Senate Democrats introduced a bill June 6 that would require the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Small Business Administration to work together to help small businesses comply with the beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA).
Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic discussed export controls and trade remedies during a meeting in Paris last week, according to an unofficial translation of a Chinese readout of the talks. China said the two sides continued to discuss the EU's countervailing duties on electric vehicle imports from China (see 2408200020) and made some progress toward an agreement on price commitments.
The U.S. this week sanctioned Los Chapitos, part of the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel, which controls laboratories that insert fentanyl in counterfeit pills that are later trafficked to the U.S. The Office of Foreign Assets Control also sanctioned two fugitive leaders of Los Chapitos and a regional network of Los Chapitos associates and businesses based in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico. OFAC said they’re involved in drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, and money laundering.
Export controls aren't "perfect," but the U.S. needs to continue using them to stay ahead of China in advanced technology sectors, Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., said last week.
Trade enforcement under President Donald Trump could "look a little different" than how the federal government has previously acted because of how the DOJ seems now to want to focus on holding individuals accountable, as opposed to corporations, according to a trade lawyer speaking during a June 6 webinar hosted by the Massachusetts Export Center.
The U.S. is willing to lift export controls over certain semiconductors in exchange for China approving exports of rare earths and other critical minerals, a senior Trump administration official said June 9.
European countries still have "very different" levels of research security practices in place to protect against threats from China and other adversarial nations, University of Manchester researchers said in a new report. While some countries have "mature research security policies and practices," others are at an earlier stage, while "no country can be said to have institutionalised research security practices across its whole research system."