The Bureau of Industry and Security on Jan. 2 published its annual export enforcement year in review, outlining the various penalties it imposed, indictments and guilty pleas it helped bring, guidance documents it issued and Entity List additions during 2024. The summary highlights enforcement actions against China, Russia and Iran; the due diligence best practices and recommendations BIS issued to exporters, financial institutions, and academia; export control-related partnerships the U.S. formed with trading partners; and more.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top 20 stories published in 2024. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference numbers.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Jan. 6 will add 13 companies to the Entity List for illegally shipping export-controlled items in support of China’s military modernization efforts or Pakistan’s ballistic missile program. The entities are located in Myanmar, China and Pakistan, the agency said in a final rule released Jan. 3. They will be subject to license requirements for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations, and licenses will be reviewed under a presumption of denial.
The Bureau of Industry and Security’s record-setting enforcement pace over the last several years has raised the agency’s profile and convinced more businesses to invest in compliance, said Matthew Axelrod, the top BIS export enforcement official. But Axelrod said he thinks companies can do more.
Congress and the executive branch should use a mix of export controls and foreign investment restrictions to prevent China from using biotechnology to commit human rights abuses, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said in its 2024 annual report.
The Commerce Department’s fall 2024 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security features a host of new rules that could soon update U.S. export controls, including restrictions on aircraft engines, biological equipment and reporting requirements for certain weapons sales, AI chips.
The outbound investment legislation that lawmakers agreed Dec. 17 to include in a newly unveiled continuing resolution (CR) (see 2412170063) would expand upon the Biden administration’s August 2023 executive order (see 2308090066) by covering more artificial intelligence models and by adding hypersonic and related aerospace technologies.
China appears to be preparing to use its own set of extraterritorial export controls against the U.S. in response to the Biden administration’s latest chip restrictions and Entity List additions, an official with the U.S.-China Business Council said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is working on a set of FAQs for its recently released China-related semiconductor export control rules (see 2412020016), which should clear up confusion about when certain new foreign direct product rule restrictions take effect and how they apply, a BIS official said this week.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is adding eight companies to the Entity List that it said are “enabling human rights violations,” including by supplying sensitive technology or military items to the Chinese, Russian and Myanmar militaries. The additions, outlined in a final rule released Dec. 10 and effective Dec. 11, target technology companies and supplier firms based in each of those three countries.