A new set of export controls on U.S. persons activities and other transactions could require “dramatic expansions” to some companies’ internal compliance programs, Akin Gump said this month, including additional compliance training, end-user certifications and greater due diligence of suppliers and customers.

The U.S., the U.K. and Canada last week issued new, coordinated sanctions against Belarus, targeting people, companies and entities that are helping Russia evade sanctions and export controls, funding Belarusian oligarchs tied to President Alexander Lukashenko or taking other steps to aid the Russian or Belarusian governments. The sanctions, which were announced days after a similar set of designations imposed by the EU (see 2408050008), were meant to mark the four-year anniversary of the “fraudulent” 2020 presidential election that helped Lukashenko keep power, the countries said in a joint statement.

Although U.S. officials say export controls on advanced semiconductors and related equipment are designed to slow Chinese technological innovation, those controls have so far hurt American toolmakers the most, a technology policy expert said.

EU countries need to do more to track China’s progress in semiconductors, electric vehicles, solar panels and other technologies, European researchers said last week, warning that Beijing is increasingly turning to export controls to test where it can best “exploit dependencies” by other major economies that are imposing their own technology trade restrictions against China. They added that China’s export licensing decisions have so far been “highly opaque” and sometimes appear biased, generating fear among western countries that the controls are solely being used as a trade retaliation tool.

The U.S. Navy is trying to help commercial cargo ships maintain the alternative trade routes companies have found as the U.S. works to end Houthi attacks on ships transiting the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, Vice Admiral George Wikoff said. And although the U.S. has used sanctions to target several Iran-backed networks helping to supply the Houthis, he said the U.S.-designated terror group is increasingly diversifying its suppliers and is becoming a legitimate technology exporter.

New EU guidance released this week offers insight into how the bloc will implement its sweeping new corporate sustainability due diligence rules, including how member states should decide whether traders do enough to collect required supply chain information.

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Recently issued guidelines by the White House’s Office of Science Technology Policy could raise export compliance stakes for universities and research institutions, law firms said, especially for researchers that receive semiconductor-related federal funding under the Chips Act.

Trade groups, lawyers, investment firms, technology companies and foreign governments suggested a range of changes to the Treasury Department’s proposed outbound investment rules (see 2406210034), echoing calls last year for more clarity surrounding the due-diligence steps that will be required of deal-makers and warning that the U.S. risks chilling a broad range of U.S. ventures in China (see 2310050035). Several commenters also urged the Biden administration not to finalize the new prohibitions without similar buy-in from allies, with at least one group suggesting the U.S. is further from coordinating the rules among trading partners than it has let on.

Companies should generally lean toward disclosing serious violations to the government -- especially those that involve national security issues -- even if there’s almost no chance the violation will be discovered, lawyers said last week.