Jake Sullivan, in one of his final public appearances as national security adviser under President Joe Biden, urged the incoming Trump administration to continue imposing technology restrictions against China and to do so in coordination with U.S. allies.
California-based machine tool manufacturer Haas Automation will pay more than $2.5 million to the U.S. government after being accused of illegally shipping parts and other items to sanctioned and Entity Listed companies in China and Russia.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined a Miami-based real estate firm and its owner more than $1 million after the agency said they helped two sanctioned Russian oligarchs transfer their luxury condominiums to their non-sanctioned family members. The firm, Family International Realty LLC, “engaged in a willful scheme” to evade U.S. sanctions against Russia, OFAC said, and earned about $180,000 in commission fees for helping to manage the properties.
Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Treasury secretary, said Jan. 16 that the U.S. should institute a “very rigorous screening process” to ensure its outbound investment does not help China catch up to the U.S. in such key technology areas as artificial intelligence, computing chips, quantum computing and surveillance.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is revising its trade regulations to add and remove items from the U.S. Munitions List and to clarify the control scope of others. The changes, outlined in an interim final rule released Jan. 16 and effective Sept. 15, include new defense articles that DDTC said should be subject to export controls under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and delete others “that no longer warrant inclusion” or that will soon become subject to the Commerce Department’s licensing jurisdiction.
The U.S. this week issued a host of new Russia-related sanctions, designating nearly 100 entities as Russia-related secondary-sanctions risks and a range of other people and companies that it said are helping Russia evade sanctions. The Treasury Department sanctions specifically target a “sanctions evasion scheme” helping people in Russia and China make international payments for sensitive goods and a Kyrgyzstan bank also helping Russia evade sanctions, while new State Department sanctions target more than 150 entities and people, including in China, for supporting Russia’s military industrial base.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is placing new export controls on certain laboratory equipment that can be used for biotechnology purposes that may threaten U.S. national security, the agency said in an interim final rule released this week.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is adding 27 technology companies to the Entity List, mostly in China, for helping Beijing make or procure advanced semiconductors or for supporting the country’s military modernization efforts through AI, the agency said in two final rules released Jan. 15 and effective Jan. 16. It’s also removing three entities tied to an Indian atomic energy agency.
The Bureau of Industry and Security announced another set of changes to its semiconductor-related export controls Jan. 15, creating new lists of trusted chip designers and service providers, introducing new reporting requirements for certain higher-risk customers and making a host of other revisions, clarifications and updates to its existing restrictions, including its latest advanced AI chip controls released earlier this week.
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