The Bureau of Industry and Security this week proposed new export controls on automated peptide synthesizers that may be used to produce biological weapons (see 2304170010). Although several U.S. companies and a Chinese academy last year warned BIS against imposing new license requirements, the agency said the synthesizers qualify as emerging or foundational technologies and may need to be restricted.
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.
CBP should implement a “standardized national process” for vehicle exports across U.S. ports, said Brian Barber, vice president of U.S. brokerage operations and government affairs at Willson International. Barber, speaking this week during CBP’s Trade Facilitation and Cargo Security Summit, said a more streamlined process could help brokers keep track of various vehicle export procedures.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on April 19 fined Seagate Technology $300 million for violating U.S. export controls against Huawei in what it said is the “largest standalone administrative penalty in BIS history.” The agency said the California-based company and its branch in Singapore sold more than 7 million export-controlled hard disk drives to Huawei in violation of the BIS foreign direct product rule.
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a new set of policy "clarifications" this week that it hopes will increase the number of voluntary self-disclosures (VSDs) it receives for serious export violations. One clarification says the agency could increase penalties on companies that fail to disclose a “significant” potential violation, while another clarification could reward companies that tip off BIS about their competitors’ wrongdoings.
DOJ this week announced a $365,000 settlement with General Motors over claims that the car maker -- in an attempt to comply with U.S. export control laws -- discriminated against non-U.S. citizens in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The agency also released a fact sheet to help employers avoid citizenship status discrimination when seeking to comply with export control laws.
The U.S. this week warned ship owners and service providers of new “deceptive practices” being used by Russia to evade the oil price cap, particularly for oil exported through the Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline and ports on the eastern coast of Russia. Shippers, traders and others should watch for several red flags to avoid helping Russia evade the cap, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said in an April 17 alert.
The Bureau of Industry and Security should reform its Entity List process and its licensing procedures to more effectively prevent China from acquiring sensitive U.S. technologies, said Cordell Hull, former acting BIS undersecretary. Hull also suggested that BIS increase its penalties for export violations, and said he isn’t convinced creating a new multilateral export control regime is the best way to counter China.
The U.S. needs to pour more funding and resources into the Bureau of Industry and Security to allow it to better address China-related national security risks, said Gregory Allen, a technology policy expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former Defense Department official. Although BIS is charged with implementing some of the U.S.’s most sensitive trade restrictions, its export control functions have “had a flat budget for the better part of a decade,” Allen said during a U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission hearing last week. “It has been profoundly neglected” and subject to an “appalling mismanagement of resources.”
China has become a “world leader” in space and missile technologies despite “far-reaching” U.S. export controls, said Kevin Pollpeter, a senior research scientist at the Center for Naval Analysis. Pollpeter, speaking during a U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission hearing last week, said China’s space and missile programs are “not only closing the gap with the United States, but are also increasingly innovative.” He noted that the director of national intelligence recently warned that China could reach “world-class status” in most space technology areas by 2030.
Public U.S. companies should update their China-related risk disclosures to factor in a range of potential trade restrictions on the horizon, including possible U.S. sanctions against Beijing for aiding Russia and new outbound investment restrictions, said Carl Valenstein, a trade lawyer with Morgan Lewis.