Wednesday Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH), introduced bipartisan legislation to bolster the Export Enforcement Coordination Center—an interagency hub for information sharing and coordination among the key agencies responsible for export control enforcement. At a hearing Thursday, officials from Commerce, Justice and Homeland Security were unanimous in their call for resources from Congress.
Export Administration is getting a new leadership framework, including the creation of Deputy Assistant Secretary roles for Strategic Trade and Technology Security, under the oversight of the newly elevated Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Matt Borman. The Changes involve dividing EA’s functions into two primary channels: Strategic Trade, focusing on licensing, outreach, and training, and Technology Security, which encompasses defense industrial base (DIB) responsibilities, analysis, and regulatory work.
Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod announced four new Enforcement Initiatives at the 2024 Update Conference on Export Controls and Policy. In his plenary address, Mr. Axelrod introduced new guidance for the Freight Forwarder community, an updated compendium of enforcement examples, an antiboycott blacklist, and enhanced outreach to manufacturers and distributors of restricted good discovered on the battlefield in Ukraine.
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.
Nothwithstanding a doubled caseload, antiquated systems, and flat budget for the past ten years, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has been keeping pace, Undersecretary for Industry and Security Alan Estevez told a congressional panel Wednesday. "BIS has been asked to do more in an era of strategic competition where economic statecraft is increasingly central to U.S. interests and strategy. We have risen to every challenge that we have been asked to take on."
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) released a final rule to impose additional restrictions under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) on persons identified under fourteen sanctions programs, on the List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List) maintained by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). “Today’s action will further our already strong coordination with the Treasury Department to prevent foreign actors from obtaining the items and financing they seek to conduct activities that threaten U.S. national security and foreign policy interests,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco delivered remarks on "the Promise and Peril of AI," at Oxford University February 14, calling an "inflection point with AI." Claiming that "AI is the ultimate disruptive technology," she vowed that the Distruptive Technology Strike Force established last year to coordinate export control activities, will place AI at the "very top" of its enforcement priority list.
Despite a board of directors rich with boldfaced Washington names, Lexmark parent Ninestar corporation appears unlikely to break free of its designation as an employer of modern slavery under the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act. Last week Judge Gary Katzmann denied Ninestar’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction staying the Listing Decision.
A federal grand jury indicted a Chinese national, charging him with four counts of theft of trade secrets in connection with an alleged plan to steal from Google LLC (Google) proprietary information related to artificial intelligence (AI) technology. According to the indictment, returned on March 5, Linwei Ding, aka Leon Ding, 38, a national of the People’s Republic of China and resident of Newark, California, transferred sensitive Google trade secrets and other confidential information from Google’s network to his personal account while secretly affiliating himself with PRC-based companies in the AI industry. Ding was arrested March 6th.
The Departments of Justice, Commerce, and Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, have issued a Tri-Seal Compliance Note: Obligations of foreign-based persons to comply with U.S. sanctions and export control laws. The Note highlights the applicability of U.S. sanctions and export control laws to persons and entities located abroad, as well as the enforcement mechanisms that are available for the U.S. government to hold non-U.S. persons accountable for violations of such laws, including criminal prosecution.
The Boeing Company will make three $9 million payments to the government to settle a pattern of material violations of export control law, including unauthorized exports of USML controlled technical data, unauthorized exports of defense articles, and Unauthorized Exports Resulting from Fabricated Permanent Export Licenses. The company agreed to name a Designated Official to head a review of the firms compliance and to spend at least $24 million on consultants, auditors and training.
Citing the Chinese government's broad authority to access and control the "vast amounts of data" generated by by chinese vehicles and components, the US Department of Commerce is preparing rules to bar trading with Chinese Automakers and suppliers of advanced componentry. Commerce has issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) seeking public comment to inform the potential development of regulations to secure and safeguard the Information and Communications Technology and Services (ICTS) supply chain for connected vehicles (CVs).
Joining British and European allies, the US imposed a further raft of sanctions on Russia and her enablers. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning almost 300 individuals and entities. This is the largest number of sanctions imposed since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. State is designating three Government of Russia officials in connection with Aleksey Navalny’s death; together, Treasury and State are sanctioning over 500 targets. The Department of Commerce is also adding more than 90 companies to the Entity List.
The White house announced initiatives to improve the cyber security of the US Port infrastructire, with enhanced authorities for the Coast Guard to inspect vessels and write minimum cybersecurity rules. Additionally, the administration will invest over $20 billion to subsidize the manufacture of cranes in the US and Korea, to reduce a dependance on Chinese supply. There are no plans to replace the over 200 Chinese cranes already in place.
Nearly $500,000 of forfeited proceeds of an illicit machine tool sale to Russian buyers will be used to support a drone-based program to assess the damage Russian aggression has done to Ukraine’s electrical distribution and transmission infrastructure. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Estonian Secretary General Tõnis Saar announced the transfer at the Munich Security Conference Saturday Feb 17.
Volkswagen said Tuesday that U.S. Customs had detained several thousand Bentley, Porsche and Audi vehicles at ports because the cars contained a part made by a Chinese supplier on a sanctions list for using forced labor in Xinjiang. The automaker describes the part's origin as a "sub-supplier," meaning a supplier to one of its suppliers—an entity far down the supply chain. Last year VW committed to conducting a supply chain audit for exposure to modern slavery.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, the most strident anti-communist to come out of Wisconsin's Fox River Valley since Sen. Joseph McCarthy, has had enough of the House of Representatives. Mr. Gallagher told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he will leave Congress at the end of his current term to enter the private sector and spend more time with his young family.
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has taken its second price cap enforcement action of 2024, imposing sanctions on four entities and identifying one vessel as blocked property. OFAC is also issuing two new determinations that implement G7 commitments to ban the importation of Russian diamonds.
The Foreign Investment Regulations Putting Buyers, Sellers, and M&A Practitioners at Risk: In recent memory, enforcement of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS” or the “Committee”) regulations has been mostly limited and sporadic. But recently, the U.S. government is reviving and enhancing these regulations as a direct response to the national security and foreign policy concerns ensuing from an increasingly tumultuous geopolitical environment. A CFIUS due diligence review is fundamentally related to export control laws and regulations — even for businesses that have never engaged in any exports.
The Commerce Department published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for establishing new requirements for Infrastructure as a Service providers (IaaS or “cloud infrastructure providers”). The proposed rule introduces potential regulations that require U.S. cloud infrastructure providers and their foreign resellers to implement and maintain Customer Identification Programs (CIPs), which would include the collection of “Know Your Customer” (KYC) information.