The U.S. and the EU are continuing to prioritize export control and sanctions enforcement against Russia, said Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission’s top trade official, and he suggested the EU may soon issue penalties against companies for evading the bloc’s sanctions. He also said the two sides are working on ways they can both put in place new export controls proposed at consensus-based multilateral regimes, such as the Wassenaar Arrangement, even if they are blocked by Russia.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeing fewer unintended impacts from its most recent October 2023 chip controls compared with the initial set of rules released in 2022, a BIS official said this week. The official also said BIS is working to identify certain companies, including potentially Chinese chip making facilities, that are restricted from receiving sensitive U.S. chip manufacturing equipment, which could help exporters more easily do due diligence on their customers and supply chain partners.

C-suite officials need to be more involved in their companies’ export compliance programs, the Bureau of Industry and Security’s top export enforcement official said this week. He also urged businesses to review -- and potentially expand -- their current programs to keep pace with export controls risks, especially as various government agencies work more closely together on investigations, indictments and sanctions.

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The Bureau of Industry and Security reached a $153,175 settlement with Wabtec, a U.S. rail technology manufacturer and supplier, after the company violated BIS’ antiboycott regulations. The agency said Wabtec committed 43 violations when it failed to report to BIS that it received requests from a Pakistani customer to boycott goods from Israel.

The U.S. is reversing the sanctions relief it gave to Venezuela last year after finding the Nicolas Maduro-led regime has failed to take steps to hold free and fair elections, which has included barring the opposition candidate from participating in the elections and arresting members of the opposition party.

The Commerce Department is proposing new rules that could require U.S. cloud service providers and their foreign resellers to follow know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, a step the agency said would prevent those services from being used to aid cyberattacks and to train artificial intelligence models that threaten U.S. national security. The proposed regulations are specifically aimed at preventing “foreign malicious cyber actors” from using U.S. infrastructure-as-a-service products to steal American intellectual property and sensitive data, commit espionage, and train large AI models for cyberattacks on U.S. critical infrastructure.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is preparing to announce more “significant” export penalties and corporate resolutions this year, said Matthew Axelrod, the agency’s top export enforcement official. He also said exporters should see more export-related indictments as part of a joint effort with DOJ, and he continued to pitch a BIS funding boost, which would help it hire more export enforcement agents.

The Bureau of Industry and Security has been experiencing delays in semiconductor-related export license applications due to a higher number of disagreements with the other agencies that also review those licenses, a senior BIS official said this week.

The Bureau of Industry and Security will likely issue more penalty announcements this year for export control violations, a former senior BIS enforcement official said, suggesting the current state of enforcement is unprecedented.