The State Department may introduce more measures to help industry mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including more license extensions or fee reductions, an agency official said. The agency is considering more measures after lowering certain fees and extending licensing deadlines in April (see 2004240017), which was received positively by companies, said Mike Miller, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for defense trade.
Ian Cohen
Ian Cohen, Deputy Managing Editor, is a reporter with Export Compliance Daily and its sister publications International Trade Today and Trade Law Daily, where he covers export controls, sanctions and international trade issues. He previously worked as a local government reporter in South Florida. Ian graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Florida in 2017 and lives in Washington, D.C. He joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2019.
U.S.-China technology competition and the Trump administration’s restrictions on Huawei have likely dashed the prospects of a phase two trade deal, China experts said. The experts also agreed that the phase one purchase agreements are unlikely to be met, even as the U.S. trade representative continues to tout progress on Chinese purchase commitments (see 2005210036).
A U.S. official again argued that the U.S. has the authority to invoke snapback sanctions under the Iran nuclear deal and threatened to impose them unless an international arms embargo against Iran is extended. Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, said the U.S. will trigger a United Nations provision to reimpose a host of international sanctions against Iran if the arms embargo, set to expire in October, is not extended. Without the embargo, Iran could import a range of advanced military weapons from China and Russia, Hook said. “One way or another, we're going to accomplish this,” he said, speaking during a June 9 virtual talk hosted by the Heritage Foundation.
The U.S. technology industry is worried that upcoming trade restrictions could damage technological innovation and competitiveness, the Information Technology Industry Council said June 8. The U.S. should avoid imposing overboard restrictions in the name of national security, the group said, warning that export controls and other measures could harm the U.S. industrial base and lead to isolation.
A foreign investment review bill being considered by the United Kingdom will significantly expand the number of transactions subject to reviews and create greater due diligence requirements for U.K. companies, trade lawyers said. As more countries aim to increase their foreign investment screening, particularly the U.S. (see 2005200032), the U.K. is hoping to better protect its industry from trade theft and national security threats, the lawyers said.
The Justice Department released an updated compliance program guidance urging industry to rely more on data, learn from past compliance penalties and improve compliance training. But the guidance, issued June 1, also introduces a “subtle” shift in how prosecutors will assess compliance programs, law firms said: More of an emphasis will be placed on determining whether programs are built to adapt to new compliance risks or whether they only rely on bare minimum measures.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on June 5 issued a series of frequently asked questions to clarify a January executive order that expanded U.S. sanctions authority against Iran (see 2001100050). The FAQs clarified that the U.S. will not target Iranian medical manufacturers, defined the sectors of Iran’s economy referenced in the order and specified which goods and services may be targeted. Before this guidance, the agency had done little to define the broad scope of the order, which was causing confusion about the reach of the authorities and the Iranian sectors that would be subject to expanded sanctions (see 2001170034).
U.S. lawmakers and sanctions experts said the administration should move faster to impose sanctions on China for interference in Hong Kong and increase export controls on critical technologies and crowd control equipment. Democratic and Republican senators said they would back a bill introduced in the Senate this week that would sanction Chinese officials and foreign banks, while experts called for a focused, multilateral sanctions approach to minimize impacts on Hong Kong citizens and U.S. companies.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security will officially add 33 companies and government agencies to the Entity List on June 5 for their roles in aiding proliferation activities and human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang province, BIS said in two Federal Register notices. The notices formalize the additions, which were announced in May (see 2005220058).
The Commerce Department plans to issue an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to remove certain filing requirements for exporters shipping goods to Puerto Rico, said Kiesha Downs, chief of the Foreign Trade Division’s regulations branch at the Census Bureau. The rule is under review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and is expected to be published this year, Downs said during a June 2 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting.