The Office of Foreign Assets Control revised its Cuba sanctions this week to loosen restrictions on a range of activities and transactions, including for certain financial and internet services. Some changes will allow certain Cuban nationals to open and remotely use U.S. bank accounts and will authorize certain Cuba-related remittances and payments that were restricted by the Trump administration.

The U.S. government should combine its various export control and sanctions lists into two distinct lists, which could allow the government to better implement trade restrictions and improve industry compliance, a congressional commission heard this week. The commission also discussed whether U.S. export control agencies should have to release more information about their licensing decisions, with one witness saying more transparency would increase business certainty, while another said it would discourage candor between the government and exporters.

The U.S. government should explore the possibility of prohibiting inbound Chinese foreign direct investment in a few sensitive high-sectors to ease the workload burden on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., a congressionally mandated commission heard last week.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission should push Congress to devote more funding to the Bureau of Industry and Security, Commissioner Michael Kuiken said during a commission hearing last week.

The U.S. government should re-examine its export controls for aviation and shipbuilding to slow China’s advances in those dual-use sectors, a congressionally mandated commission heard May 23. The government also should consider more restrictions on Huawei and improve its efforts to get allies on board with U.S. export controls, the panel was told.

The U.K. this week issued a new warning to shipowners and brokers seeing large profits from selling older ships to unknown buyers, saying they need to make sure they aren’t selling to a person with ties to Russia or who plans to violate Russian oil sanctions.

The U.S. declined to prosecute a Massachusetts biochemical company that was part of an illegal export scheme involving China, the first time DOJ’s National Security Division has offered a corporate declination under its recently updated voluntary self-disclosure program.

The U.S. hasn’t done enough to coordinate its China-related trade restrictions with U.S. allies, especially its semiconductor export controls, Craig Allen, head of the U.S.-China Business Council, told Biden administration officials this week.

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U.S. export controls may not be the best way to counter China’s legacy semiconductor industry, especially because the EU and other allies aren’t likely to adopt similar restrictions, researchers said this month. The researchers said they expect the U.S. to turn more frequently to entity-based controls -- including through the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List -- and other national security tools to address risks relating to more mature-node chips.