April 2024 Export Practitioner

Arms dealers to Sudan & Iraq; Pennsylvanian sentenced for torture & arms to Iraq; DPRK diplomat money laundering

The president of Orlando, Florida-based steel trading firm Metalhouse LLC, was sentenced to six years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering to promote violations of U.S. sanctions against Sergey Kurchenko, a pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch.   A business associate, a Belarusian national residing in Miami, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for his role in the scheme.

Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) Chair Erica Y. Williams announced a record $25 million fine sanctioning KPMG Netherlands for widespread improper answer sharing and the firm's multiple misrepresentations about its knowledge of the misconduct.

A new report from the House Select Committee on China found that US financial institutions have facilitated investment of more than $6.5 billion to 63 Chinese companies that the US government has red-flagged or blacklisted for advancing Beijing’s military capabilities or supporting its human rights abuses.

The USTR has requested a Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRM) panel under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to resolve a labor dispute at call center operator Atento Servicios, S.A. de C.V. .    At the conclusion of its 45-day review period, Mexico found a denial of rights had existed, but determined that Atento Servicios had taken the necessary actions to remediate the denial of rights during Mexico’s review period. The United States disagrees with this determination and is requesting establishment of an RRM panel to review the situation.

Airline industry and labor groups are calling for restrictions on Chinese Airline flights to the US, citing unfair competition. The groups have asked for a "pause" to additional passenger flights between the United States and China "until U.S. workers and businesses are guaranteed equality of access in the marketplace, free from the existing harmful anti-competitive policies of the Chinese government. "

The leaders of the House Select Committee on China are calling on the Administration to press allies – particularly Europe and the United Kingdom – to prevent Chinese goods made by Uyghur forced labor from entering their markets. “We are particularly concerned that goods made by Uyghur forced labor continue to flood into Europe and the United Kingdom (UK), which some have described as ‘dumping grounds’ for these products that are otherwise banned from importation into the United States,” Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wis) and ranking Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill) wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

U.S. Department of Commerce and TSMC Arizona  a subsidiary of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), have signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms (PMT) to provide up to $6.6 billion in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel at all U.S. ports of entry will detain work gloves manufactured by Shanghai Select Safety Products Company, Limited and its two subsidiaries.. CBP issued a Withhold Release Order (WRO) against Shanghai Select Safety Products Company, Limited and its two subsidiaries Nantong and HK, based on information that reasonably indicates the use of convict labor in violation of 19 U.S.C. § 1307 in the production of that merchandise.

The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published an interim final rule significantly reducing licensing requirements for Australia and the United Kingdom (UK) to foster defense trade and technological innovation. BIS is removing Commerce Control List (CCL) license requirements to allow Commerce-controlled military items, missile technology-related items, and hot section engine-related items to be exported or reexported to Australia and the UK without a license.  Similar relaxation by the State Department on ITAR controlled technology can be expected "over the course of the next 120 days," according to a statement.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), Department of Commerce is announcing its recruitment of candidates to serve on one of its six Technical Advisory Committees (“TACs”). TAC …

The United States will publish a list of advanced Chinese chipmaking factories barred from receiving key tools, Reuters reported Thursday, citing three separate sources. The list could be released in the next couple of months, according to the report..

BIS has published corrections and amendments to the October 25 2023 Semicinductor and Advanced Computing Rules. This rule corrects inadvertent errors in those rules and makes additional clarifications for the two rules. China has expressed strong opposition to the latest U.S. revised rules on semiconductor export rules, saying that it will disrupt the global semiconductor market as well as cooperation between enterprises.

The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security 2024 Update Conference kicked off Wednesday to a full house in Washington, with over 1,100 attendees registered and many breakout sessions extended to overflow rooms with video feeds. While Commerce Secretary Gina Raimonda was unable to attend in person, Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez greeted attendees with a recap of the work undertaken since the last conference in 2022, and insights on where things are headed.