LONDON -- The Bureau of Industry and Security is increasingly sending out is-informed letters to warn companies that some of their currently unrestricted products need an export license before they can be shipped, said Nancy Fischer, a Pillsbury trade lawyer. Some companies receiving the letters view them as unfair, Fischer said, particularly because BIS doesn’t always send similar letters to their competitors.
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.
The Bureau of Industry and Security dismissed appeals from a Turkish airline and a Russian tour company after both said they were wrongly implicated in a temporary denial order the agency renewed against a separate Russian airline in June.
LONDON -- The Bureau of Industry and Security is noticing a sharp uptick in low-level U.S. microelectronics exports to countries that weren’t involved in semiconductor-related shipments before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, said Liz Abraham, senior adviser for international policy at BIS. She said BIS is looking at creative ways to potentially restrict some of those shipments, even though many of them are designated under the Export Administration Regulations as EAR99 -- items that generally don’t require an export license.
The EU has received assurances that Beijing will grant export licenses for shipments of gallium and germanium to European businesses despite the restrictions China placed on exports of the two metals in August (see 2307050018), European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said this week. Dombrovskis also said the bloc is looking to sanction additional Chinese firms that may be skirting restrictions against Russia and is hoping to ensure its upcoming supply chain due diligence regulations don’t impose excessive compliance burdens on EU companies.
LONDON -- The U.K. is on track to fully deploy the country’s new digital export licensing system in March 2025, said Rosemary Pratt, director of the U.K.’s Export Control Joint Unit. Pratt said the new system, which has faced several delays, has been a “very long running, challenging project,” but it’s now entering the “final phase” and will make export licensing more efficient for U.K. companies.
LONDON -- The State Department hasn’t yet seen much participation in its open general license pilot program despite releasing the licenses more than a year ago, said Catherine Hamilton, the licensing director for the agency’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Hamilton said the licenses specifically aren’t “really being used in the U.K. as we had envisioned.”
Exporters should require their customers to sign written compliance certifications if the shipment involves items that fall under one of nine high-priority Harmonized System codes and the customer is in a country outside of the U.S.-led global export controls coalition, the Bureau of Industry and Security said. Although these customer certifications or end-user statements are not mandated by law, BIS said it’s recommending that companies begin using the certifications if they aren’t already, saying in a new best practices guidance that these statements will help prevent diversion of controlled items to Russia.
LONDON -- The U.K. is having “deep” conversations with the U.S. about aligning the two countries’ defense export regulations in an effort to slash technology sharing restrictions as part of the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) agreement, said Rosemary Pratt, director of the U.K.’s Export Control Joint Unit. Pratt said she believes the U.K. eventually will update its controls enough to benefit from a new potential defense-related license exemption being considered by Congress.
Licensing work at sanctions and export control agencies likely will grind to a near halt in the event of a federal government shutdown Oct. 1, though enforcement activities at the Bureau of Industry and Security, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls and Office of Foreign Assets Control will continue -- if previous shutdowns are any guide.
LONDON -- The Bureau of Industry and Security hopes to publish the final version of its Oct. 7 China chip controls in October, said Liz Abraham, senior adviser for international policy at BIS.