President Joe Biden will maintain Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ designation as a foreign terrorist organization, removing the designation as a negotiating chip in a renewed nuclear deal with Iran, Politico reported May 24. The designation, which subjects the group to certain sanctions, was made as part of the Trump administration's maximum pressure campaign against Iran. Naftali Bennett, Israel’s prime minister, applauded the decision in a May 24 tweet. “I welcome the decision by the US Administration to keep Iran’s IRGC on the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list -- which is where it belongs.”
Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez said his top long-term priority is building a new multilateral export control regime, and he urged industry to continue considering diversifying away from China and Russia. He also said BIS is working hard to control emerging and foundational technologies and welcomes more input from industry, academia and think tanks.
The U.S. and other techno-democracies should capitalize on their closely coordinated Russia sanctions work to create a new multilateral export control group, said two experts with Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. A new regime, which would include a range of technology-producing nations that share democratic values, would help those countries address technology proliferation issues that existing regimes can not.
Almost 90 trade associations, including the U.S. Council for International Business and the Semiconductor Industry Association, released a statement May 17 urging World Trade Organization members to renew the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions until the next ministerial conference. The trade associations said that continuing the moratorium is key to the COVID-19 recovery and to "supply chain resilience for manufacturing and services industries in the COVID-19 era." Lifting the moratorium would jeopardize all of these benefits since it would disrupt cross-border access to knowledge and digital tools, the statement said.
The European Union head of trade in the Washington embassy said that the value of the Trade and Technology Council is less in trying to resolve differences in regulatory approaches and more in trying to prevent new barriers to trade.
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The U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council hopes to make progress around the idea of a new multilateral export control regime by the TTC’s next ministerial meeting this fall, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said. She said the group is thinking about which U.S. and EU technologies are “especially significant” and warrant multilateral controls, such as semiconductor equipment.
The U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council agreed to several export control and investment screening initiatives during the TTC’s second meeting in Paris this week, including measures to better harmonize export licensing decisions and share information on screening practices (see 2205130071). The U.S. and the EU said these measures will help both sides continue their “unprecedented cooperation on export controls” against Russia and urged the working groups to “implement concrete actions” before the next ministerial meeting.
The U.S. and the EU this week plan to announce a range of new initiatives through the Trade and Technology Council, including more collaboration on export controls and additional efforts to secure semiconductor supply chains, a senior administration official said. The official, speaking to reporters May 13 ahead of the TTC's second meeting May 15-16 in Paris, said the two sides will “deepen the partnership and announce a number of key outcomes.”
Companies need to stay on top of their compliance because significant escalation of Russia-related sanctions is possible, KPMG experts said. The "dramatic increase in the use of sanctions and other controls" over the past two months will likely continue to expand in complexity, said Jason Rhoades, KPMG senior manager-trade and customs services, during a May 11 webinar. Because Russian behavior toward Ukraine has not changed, "we expect [the use of sanctions] to continue to grow," Rhoades said. "There is significant room still out there for [sanctions] escalation."