The World Trade Organization's published agenda for the Dispute Settlement Body's June 24 meeting includes U.S. status reports on the implementation of DSB recommendations on: antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; antidumping and countervailing measures on large residential washers from South Korea; certain methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China; and Section 110(5) of the U.S. Copyright Act. Status reports also are expected from Indonesia on measures related to the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products and from the EU on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products.
Exports to China
The Bureau of Industry and Security is hoping to publish a rule this summer that would again update or clarify how export controls apply to releases of technology for standards setting or development in standards organizations, said Hillary Hess, director of the BIS regulatory policy division.
A new strategy by the Bureau of Industry and Security to add a set of addresses -- instead of company names -- to the Entity List could lead to screening challenges for exporters, industry officials told the agency this week.
An Oregon-based forwarding company will face a three-year export denial order after it failed to adhere to a 2021 settlement agreement with the Bureau of Industry and Security and continued to violate U.S. export regulations.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned several people and entities, along with one vessel, for helping to procure weapons for the Iran-backed Houthis or for shipping commodities to fund the Yemen-based group. The designations target procurement officers and companies in China along with others in Oman, Cameroon and the United Arab Emirates.
The House of Representatives last week approved a proposal that would require the administration to report to Congress on how proceeds from illicit Iranian oil exports are funding Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Tehran’s terrorist proxies.
The Group of Seven (G7) nations agreed last week at their summit in Apulia, Italy, to use interest from frozen Russian assets to finance about $50 billion in loans to Ukraine.
The next administration should look to raise criminal penalties for trade theft, broaden the scope of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and refocus its export controls on military technologies to better compete with China, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said this week. ITIF also said the U.S. should push for a new “techno-economic alliance” of key trading partners and develop a new multilateral export control regime focused on semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
DOJ’s recent decision not to prosecute a biochemical company that was part of an illegal export scheme involving China (see 2406040069 and 2405220037) underscores the importance of companies being “particularly aggressive” about deciding whether to submit an early voluntary disclosure to the U.S. government, McGuire Woods said in a client alert. The firm noted that DOJ decided not to prosecute the company, MilliporeSigma, “because of its prompt disclosure soon after it detected suspicious activity” -- the company disclosed the issue one week after hiring an outside lawyer. “Companies that wait too long to disclose or affirmatively choose not to file voluntary self-disclosures are at greater risk of being prosecuted or forfeiting valuable cooperation credit,” the firm said.
Canadian and German national Klaus Pflugbeil, who lives in China, pleaded guilty June 13 to conspiring to steal the trade secrets of an unnamed U.S.-based electric vehicle company to build his own company in China, DOJ announced. He faces a maximum 10-year prison stint following sentencing on Oct. 9.