Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The U.S. executive branch has “really good authorities” to restrict exports of advanced computing chips but should improve how it wields them to prevent China from exploiting loopholes, a technology policy researcher told a congressional panel April 8.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., reintroduced a bill April 7 that aims to close a loophole that has allowed China to use cloud service providers to access advanced U.S. computing chips remotely.
Reps. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and John James, R-Mich., introduced a bill April 3 that would direct the administration to identify South African government officials and African National Congress leaders who should be sanctioned for human rights abuses or corruption.
Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Wash., reintroduced a bill April 3 that would require an annual report to Congress on sanctions imposed under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, a 2020 law that aims to address the wrongful detainment of U.S. nationals abroad.
A new license issued this week by the Office of Foreign Assets Control authorizes payments of certain taxes, fees, import duties, licenses, certifications and other similar transactions involving the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation that would normally be blocked under Directive 4 of Executive Order 14024. General License 13M authorizes those transactions through 12:01 a.m. EDT July 9 as long as they are “ordinarily incident and necessary to the day-to-day operations in the Russian Federation of such U.S. persons or entities.”
The European Commission this week updated its Syria-related sanctions guidance to clarify what types of activities with the country are permitted after the EU in February suspended certain restrictions against Syria (see 2502240010). The guidance also addresses how EU companies should approach the “interplay between EU sanctions and US sanctions” against Syria, saying that EU parties “are not required to comply with US sanctions. They are only required to comply with EU sanctions.” It added that U.S. sanctions “might be intended to produce effects beyond the US territory and seek to regulate the behaviour of EU economic operators that have no significant connection to the US,” but the EU doesn’t recognize the “extra-territorial application of laws adopted by third countries and considers such application to be contrary to international law.”
Even if the Trump administration were to lift U.S. sanctions against Russia, the country would still be “uninvestable” for multinational companies because of the EU’s trade and financial restrictions, which would likely remain in place, said Janis Kluge of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
Michael Pender, a longtime senior engineer with the Bureau of Industry and Security, is retiring from government April 30, he announced on LinkedIn. He works in the Office of National Security and Technology Transfer Controls, where he said he helps to review dual-use exports, with a focus on items containing advanced encryption features or related to information security. Pender has worked at BIS for more than two decades.
Switzerland last week announced plans to align certain of its dual-use export restrictions with trading partners as part of the country’s “response to the blockade of multilateral export controls,” a reference to Russia’s vetoing of export control proposals at the multilateral Wassenaar Arrangement (see 2405300063). The changes, effective May 1, will update Swiss controls for emerging technologies related to quantum computing, advanced semiconductor manufacturing, artificial intelligence and additive manufacturing.