Although the auto industry appears to have lost the fight to delay a switchover from NAFTA to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, an executive at the organization that represents parts suppliers said they now hope that with give-and-take on the implementing rules and perhaps some flexibility, the industry will be able to make a July 1 entry into force date work.

The Commerce Department amended the Export Administration Regulations to expand licensing requirements for exports, re-exports and transfers of items intended for military uses in China, Russia and Venezuela, according to a notice. The rule expands the licensing requirements for exports to China to include military end-users as well as military end-uses, broadens the list of items subject to the licensing requirement and review policy, and expands the definition for military end-use. The rule also “creates a new reason for control” and review policy for certain exports to the three countries, and added new Electronic Export Information filing requirements.

The Commerce Department eliminated its license exception for civil end-users (CIV) in an effort to cut exports to countries pursuing civil-military fusion (see 1904260018), the agency said in a notice. The change, which was expected for nearly a year (see 1907180037), will remove authorizations to export certain controlled items to most civil end-users for civil end-uses in Country Group D:1. The change takes effect June 29.

The Commerce Department is considering restricting the number of destination countries that are authorized to receive certain U.S. re-exports that are controlled for national security reasons, the agency said in a notice. The proposed rule would amend the license exception for Additional Permissive Reexports (APR) by removing nations in Country Group D:1, including China, from being eligible to receive those re-exports, Commerce said. The rule would remove APR license eligibility from more than 20 countries. Comments are due June 29.

Export controls and trade restrictions are becoming an increasing part of U.S.-China competition despite little clarity about whether they will work in the long term, trade experts said. The measures also seem to lack a clear focus within both the U.S. government and China, with officials disagreeing on how best to impose restrictions, the experts said.

The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls announced a series of compliance, licensing and management measures to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic response measures on industry, the DDTC said in an April 23 notice. The measures include temporary suspensions on certain registration renewal requirements, temporary reductions of certain registration fees and measures to allow companies to work remotely.

The Commerce Department’s unclear rollout of an export control on geospatial imagery software is causing industry confusion and could lead to broad, unintended impacts on exports of certain artificial intelligence, industry representatives said in interviews. If unchanged, the rule could severely impact a range of companies in the geospatial field, they said, creating the type of broad consequences Commerce officials hoped to avoid (see 1911070014).

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has been quickly addressing humanitarian licensing issues from industry but could be doing more to encourage the flow of aid to Iran, a former OFAC official and a sanctions lawyer said. OFAC has been rightly criticized for not doing enough to eliminate industry fears of sanctions, said Brian O’Toole, a former senior adviser to the OFAC director, adding that the government should rethink restrictions surrounding humanitarian trade. And although OFAC issued a guidance (see 2004160039) encouraging banks to process humanitarian-related transactions involving Iran, banks continue to seek more assurances, lawyer Kerry Contini said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to issue export control decisions for most shipments of controlled medical equipment within two days, but some shipments may take as long as four days, a FEMA spokesperson said April 21. Some law firms have advised medical equipment exporters to expect delays at ports across the country as FEMA makes those determinations, which involves a review of “letters of attestation” from exporters, who must certify that they qualify for one of several exemptions FEMA issued this week (see 2004200019).

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for April 13-17 in case you missed them.