The Commerce Department proposed prohibiting the sale or import of connected vehicles integrating specific pieces of hardware and software, or those components sold separately, with a sufficient nexus to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or Russia.     Published by the Bureau of Industry and Security, the rule focuses on hardware and software integrated into the Vehicle Connectivity System (VCS) and software integrated into the Automated Driving System (ADS). These are the critical systems that, through specific hardware and software, allow for external connectivity and autonomous driving capabilities in connected vehicles.

In a statement to mark the third anniversary of AUKUS, the leaders of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, reaffirmed their commitment to this historic partnership and acknowledged progress to date.   

The governments of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States met as the “Export Enforcement Five” (E5) in their second annual conference in Washington, D.C. The group's statement noted their efforts to prevent the diversion of sensitive technologies and materials that support Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Treasury Department has designated a network of five entities and one individual – based in Russia and in the Russia-occupied Georgian region of South Ossetia – that have enabled and supported ongoing efforts to establish illicit payment mechanisms between Russia and North Korea.

Among the China Week Legislation, the House of Representatives passed a bill amending the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (ECRA) to include trade secret protections. If enacted, this would expand regulatory authority over information not currently covered by U.S. export control laws. As a result, U.S. companies may need government approval before disclosing trade secrets, even in non-traditional export transactions, and may face stricter requirements for safeguarding such information.

A national security decision regarding Nippon Steel's proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel may be delayed until after the November election, following the companies' resubmission of the deal for review. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has allowed the companies to refile their application for a national security review of the $14.1 billion transaction, sources told The Wall Street Journal..

The USTR announced enforcement action under the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA) Forest Sector Annex. USTR requested the Government of Peru to verify that five timber shipments exported to the United States from Peru complied with applicable Peruvian laws and regulations.

Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued another resource to familiarize small business owners with beneficial ownership reporting requirements. This law requires many small businesses to report basic information to the Federal government about the real people who ultimately own or control them.

To strengthen cooperation between the United States and Uzbekistan on critical minerals, officials signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Tashkent. The United States and Uzbekistan are actively working to encourage private sector investment in Uzbekistan’s mining sector. The MOU further reflects both sides’ shared goal of strong environmental, labor, and governance practices in the global mining sector.

The United States and Mexico have resolved a worker rights complaint under the US-Mexico- Canada Agreement involving a Hong-Kong based maker of cast and machined component parts.

China announced steps against nine U.S. military-linked firms on Wednesday over U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan, freezing their property within China, in the latest move to put added pressure on the United States to halt its arms sales to the island, Reuters news service reported.

The UAE's ambition to become a world leader in artificial intelligence, funded and endorsed by both Chinese and US tech interests, are constrained by  Washington's export controls, according to one of the effort's principal American sponsors. “We all need clarity and consistency from the US government in terms of the specifics of the export control regime," Brad Smith, President of Microsoft told the Financial Times.

In a speech at the NYU School of Law Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri discussed the newest tool in the Justice Department’s corporate enforcement toolbox: the Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program. At the same event another Justice official said over 100 tips were received in the program's first month of operation.

The Justice Department announced the disruption of a botnet consisting of more than 200,000 consumer devices in the United States and worldwide. The botnet devices were infected by Chinese state-sponsored hackers working for Integrity Technology Group, a Beijing-based cyber security firm traded on the Shanghai Exchange as Yongxin Zhicheng Technology Group Co., Ltd.

The United States has asked Mexico to review whether workers at a German-owned leatherworks supplying the automotive industry are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.  The facility specializes in manufacturing premium leather for the automotive industry.  Gernam parent Bader GmbH & Co. KG, is a leading supplier of leather trim to all major auto manufacturers from Acura to Volvo.

A senate subcommittee  released a majority staff report detailing its inquiry into the prevalence of American-manufactured microchips in Russian weapons systems. "Our findings reveal a distinct disinterest in evaluating and improving corporate compliance practices and particularly, monitoring those distributors, the middlemen, the ones who may actually make the sales to companies that sell to Russia." said the Committee Chair in his opening remarks.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced several new outreach initiatives to complement their recent  website  upgrades and  video  series.     …

Compliance-challenged banking behemoth Wells Fargo & Co reached a settlement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) related to the bank’s anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions risk management failures. The Formal Agreement identifies deficiencies relating to the bank’s financial crimes risk management practices and anti-money laundering internal controls in several areas including suspicious activity and currency transaction reporting, customer due diligence, and the bank’s customer identification and beneficial ownership programs. The agreement requires the bank to take comprehensive corrective actions to enhance its Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering and U.S. sanctions compliance programs.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report highlights the substantial investments China is making through the world’s largest infrastructure finance program, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Contributors to the report identified challenges to US competitiveness includeing the "lack of a public national strategy to guide and prioritize" U.S. efforts and the "fragmentation of foreign assistance efforts" across several federal agencies.

The Biden-Harris Administration has announced a series of new actions aimed at addressing the growing abuse of the de minimis exemption, particularly by e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Shein and Temu. The administration’s efforts come in response to a significant rise in de minimis shipments, which have increased from 140 million annually to over one billion in the last decade, complicating efforts to regulate imports and block illegal goods.