The Bureau of Industry and Security revoked the export privileges of a Georgia resident after she admitted to trying to illegally export about $25,000 worth of optical sighting devices from the U.S. to China. As part of a settlement agreement, Dina Zhu of Lawrenceville, Georgia, will be barred from participating in any transaction subject to the Export Administration Regulations for one year from Oct. 20, but she won’t face a fine.
The U.S. updated chip export controls announced this week will affect a number of chips marketed by Nvidia, the American semiconductor firm confirmed this week. Nvidia said it will face new license requirements for any of its integrated circuits exceeding certain performance thresholds -- including its A100, A800, H100, H800, L40, L40S and RTX 4090 -- along with any existing system that incorporates one or more of those integrated circuits, including potentially future products developed by the company.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine changed export compliance dramatically, said Howard Mendelsohn, chief client officer for Kharon, "where the onus is on industry like it’s never been before to sort of find a way to be proactive." Mendelsohn, whose firm provides risk intelligence to businesses, spoke at an OCR Services trade compliance conference Oct. 17 in Bethesda, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C. He said exporters have to be proactive on blocking reports and applying for licenses, and importers have to find another supplier.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week released a range of updates to its Oct. 7, 2022, China chip controls, unveiling two rules that will impose new license requirements on additional chips and chipmaking tools, make revisions to its U.S. persons restrictions, expand licensing requirements for exports of certain chipmaking items to U.S. arms-embargoed countries, create a new notification requirement and introduce other measures to address export control circumvention risks.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is amending the Commerce Control List to implement changes agreed to during the 2022 Wassenaar Arrangement plenary, the agency said in an interim final rule released this week. The rule, effective Oct. 18, includes control parameter changes and editorial revisions to more than 50 Export Control Classification Numbers across Categories 1-10 of the CCL. BIS also is seeking public comments on a change that would restrict the use of License Exception STA (Strategic Trade Authorization) for certain countries when exporting technology used to develop certain supersonic aero gas turbine engine components.
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a temporary denial order last week against three people and four companies for their involvement in a scheme to illegally procure more than $225,000 worth of U.S. electronics components for Russia’s military. One of the individuals, Russian-German national Arthur Petrov, was arrested Aug. 26 in Cyprus and charged by DOJ with violating export controls and smuggling controlled goods from the U.S.
The Bureau of Industry and Security made several changes to the Export Administration Regulations this week to align its controls with decisions made at the multilateral Nuclear Suppliers Group in 2019 and 2022. The amendments, outlined in a final rule effective Aug. 18, revised five existing Export Control Classification Numbers under the Commerce Control List to alter or clarify the scope of certain controls and make technical fixes to other ECCNs.
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week expanded the scope of its nuclear-related export controls on China and Macau, saying the change was necessary to impose tighter license requirements on items that could “contribute to nuclear activities of concern.” The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also suspended a general license that had authorized exports of certain nuclear items for nuclear end uses in China.
Citing a Financial Times report that Chinese artificial intelligence developers are evading controls on advanced semiconductors by using cloud services, members of the House introduced a bill to stop those practices, called Closing Loopholes for the Overseas Use and Development of Artificial Intelligence (CLOUD AI). The bill was introduced last month, and its text published this week.
A Puyallup, Washington, resident who illegally exported optical magnifiers to South Korea agreed to export compliance training as part of a settlement agreement announced by the Bureau of Industry and Security this week. If Jaeyoun Jung doesn’t complete the training, he may be subject to a two-year temporary denial order, BIS said.