The Bureau of Industry and Security added 27 entities to the Entity List for illegally selling technology to China, North Korea and other sanctioned countries, for supporting China’s military modernization efforts or for contributing to Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programs, the agency said Nov. 24. The Entity List additions include a range of laboratories and companies operating in the semiconductor, microelectronics and machinery sectors in China, Japan, Pakistan and Singapore, including several major Chinese chip companies.

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls this week updated and issued a host of new guidance to address industry questions related to debarments, disclosures and export controls violations. The 17 new FAQs, published about three weeks after the agency said it was preparing new guidance at the request of the Defense Trade Advisory Group, address a range of compliance issues, among them what should be included in voluntary disclosures, how the agency treats those disclosures, how they affect licensing, and differences between a debarment rescission and reinstatement of export privileges.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for Nov. 15-19 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

The Biden administration should impose sanctions against Nord Stream 2 and the company behind the gas pipeline project, European security experts said. Several called the U.S.’s May sanctions waiver (see 2105200055) a mistake and urged Congress to keep pushing the administration to impose sanctions before the pipeline is operational.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing for both the House and the Senate to include a range of sanctions bills in the annual defense policy legislation, which they say would further penalize international corruption and U.S. enablers of that corruption.

Port congestion and container issues are crippling U.S. exports of pork, dairy and other agricultural products, which could permanently lose ground to competitors in foreign markets if U.S. port problems aren’t quickly resolved, industry officials said. Speaking to a House Agriculture subcommittee this week, officials urged Congress to pass the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (see 2108100011) and do more to penalize carriers for leaving the U.S. with empty containers.

The European Commission this week proposed new rules that would restrict imports to “deforestation-free” goods in a bid to combat global deforestation, global warming and biodiversity loss. The rules would set “mandatory” due diligence requirements and add to the compliance responsibilities for importers of goods associated with deforestation, such as soy, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa, coffee and leather.

A bipartisan congressional commission called on the U.S. to take more aggressive steps to stop China from acquiring sensitive U.S. technologies, including through more export controls and sanctions. The recommendations, released Nov. 17 by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission as part of its annual report to Congress, could make sweeping changes to how the Commerce Department imposes certain export controls and how U.S. agencies coordinate trade restrictions.

The Bureau of Industry and Security needs to better enforce its foreign direct product (FDP) rule, which is not adequately stopping Huawei and other Chinese companies from acquiring certain sensitive U.S.-produced technology, eight Republican senators said in a Nov. 15 letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The senators said Commerce’s “lax enforcement” of the rule has encouraged other technology firms to sell to companies on the Entity List, said the lawmakers, who all serve on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

The United Kingdom’s new foreign investment screening law may draw more industry filings than first expected, Baker McKenzie lawyer Sunny Mann said. Although the U.K.’s new National Security and Investment Act doesn’t officially take effect until Jan. 4, Mann said many companies are already showing signs they plan to be careful and notify the U.K. before closing investment deals, rather than waiting for the government to intervene.