BIS Urges Traders to Review Updated List of Companies Making Boycott Requests

The Bureau of Industry and Security made its first update to its new boycott Requester List, a list of entities that have asked other companies to boycott goods from certain countries in violation of the Export Administration Regulations. The agency said freight forwarders, banks and other entities involved in international trade transactions should review the list to help them comply with BIS antiboycott rules.

The list, which BIS issued in March (see 2403290025) and which the agency plans to update every quarter, includes 57 new entities that have been recently reported to BIS as having made a boycott request “in connection with a transaction in the interstate or foreign commerce of the United States,” the agency said. The additions include entities located in Malaysia, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Norway, Japan, India, Germany and other countries in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. Companies are required to report to BIS each time they receive a boycott request.

BIS also removed 127 entities from the list after the agency was “made aware” that U.S. companies had “misidentified a foreign party as having made a reportable boycott request or because the foreign party removed boycott language in transaction documents with U.S. entities.” The agency said entities that believe they were mistakenly added to the list should contact the Office of Antiboycott Compliance.

The agency urged American people and companies to “diligently review transaction documents from all sources, but especially” if they involve any of the parties on the boycott Requester List. U.S. companies should look for any language in transaction documents with those parties that may signal a boycott request “and to determine whether U.S.-person recipients have a reporting requirement to BIS” under the EAR.