The U.K. updated its trade sanctions license this week to clarify certain situations wherein its Department for Business and Trade won’t issue an import license. The guidance said traders must apply for an import license before the goods are transported to the U.K., and the government won’t grant a license if an application is made for goods already at the U.K. border. It also won’t issue a license if the goods are “otherwise held in storage in the U.K. prior to making a customs declaration,” the guidance said. “It is a criminal offence to import sanctioned goods without the necessary” license.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles last week to discuss the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) agreement, under which the countries share defense technology. Hegseth said President Donald Trump is “very familiar with the agreement and equally supportive of it,” according to a Pentagon press release published after the meeting. Hegseth added that “this is not a mission in the Indo-Pacific that America can undertake by itself. It has to [include] robust allies and partners. Technology sharing and subs are a huge part of it."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control updated its license application portal with new functionality for people and organizations applying for sanctions licenses, the agency announced this week. The portal now allows users to create an account, which will let them save and return to an application in progress, view a list of their applications and case statuses in a single dashboard, save frequently used contacts for “easier data entry,” replicate a previous application, and more. Users who register for an account will need to enter a sign-in email and create a password, OFAC said.
The first few weeks of the new Trump administration have shown that there appears to be a “fair amount of continuity” from the Biden administration on certain China trade policies, including around export controls and outbound investment restrictions, a former Biden National Security Council official said.
Molly Miller, a former chief of the Office of Foreign Assets Control's enforcement division, has joined Bank of America as its managing director for global economic sanctions, Miller announced on LinkedIn. She most recently worked for Capital One after leaving OFAC in 2015.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic seized an aircraft used by sanctioned Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA) at the request of the U.S. government due to alleged sanctions and export control violations, DOJ announced.
A new executive order signed last week by President Donald Trump authorizes sanctions against people and entities linked to the International Criminal Court, including ICC officials, employees and their relatives. Trump signed the order in response to the ICC’s investigation of the Israeli military for war crimes in Gaza, including its issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials.
The U.S. National Science Foundation is seeking public comments as it develops an “action plan” on artificial intelligence development. The request for information, issued on behalf of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, will help “define the priority policy actions needed to sustain and enhance America's AI dominance” and remove “unnecessarily burdensome requirements” that hinder AI innovation. It specifically asks for feedback on AI “innovation and competition, intellectual property, procurement, international collaboration, and export controls,” among other areas. Comments are due March 15.
U.S. export controls on computing chips and chipmaking equipment are more likely to slow China's advances in artificial intelligence than in military modernization, a researcher said during a Feb. 6 hearing of the congressionally mandated U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
The U.S. should consider strengthening export controls on technology that China needs for its aerospace industry, an aviation industry expert told a U.S. commission last week, but not so much that it risks decoupling the two nations’ aviation supply chains.