U.S. and Australian officials voiced support for the AUKUS arrangement in Washington this week and "reaffirmed their commitment" to expanding the use of export control license exemptions by both nations, according to a State Department fact sheet.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls published a "redline" document to highlight recent changes made to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations as a result of the agency’s ITAR reorganization effort. The revised document reflects changes made to the ITAR in light of DDTC’s removal of its arms embargo against Cambodia (see 2511060016) and its continued temporary suspension of restrictions on certain defense exports to Cyprus (see 2509080001). "Those changes are identified in the reorg redline by identifier 'Rev.17,'" DDTC said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security again renewed a temporary denial order for Nordwind Airlines after saying the Russian airline continues to illegally operate aircraft on flights into and out of Russia. Nordwind has "engaged in a pattern of repeated, ongoing and/or continuous apparent violations" of the Export Administration Regulations and previous denial orders, BIS said, noting that it has operated several recent flights to and from Russia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The agency renewed the order for one year from Dec. 5.
U.S. semiconductor-related export controls against China have been "incredibly successful," mostly because they have forced Beijing to expend more resources trying to advance its domestic chip industry, argued Stephen Brooks, a professor at Dartmouth College who focuses on economics and security.
The Office of the Federal Register published a correction this week to a Commerce Control List that appeared in the most recent annual revision of the Code of Federal Regulations. It fixes an error in the language that describes certain "materials" controlled in the CCL, including metals and alloys.
The Bureau of Industry and Security again renewed a temporary denial order for Siberian Airlines after saying the Russian airline continues to illegally operate aircraft on flights into and out of Russia. The airline has acted in "blatant disregard for U.S. export controls and the terms of previously issued" denial orders, BIS said, pointing to several recent flights it has operated to and from Russia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan. The agency renewed the order for one year from Dec. 3.
The Trump administration has halted plans to sanction a Chinese spy agency and will refrain from imposing any “major new export controls” on China to avoid disrupting the trade truce reached between the two sides in South Korea earlier this year, the Financial Times reported.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has canceled each of its Technical Advisory Committee meetings since the start of October, including the next meeting of its Regulations and Procedures TAC that was scheduled for Dec. 9, according to the agency's website.
New Zealand is seeking public comments and proposals on ways to strengthen its export control regime, it said last week. The country is specifically considering how to address "contemporary and future proliferation challenges," which could lead to new export controls on intangible technology transfers, such as military-related teaching and joint research, "which are increasingly targeted by proliferators to gain knowledge."
The State Department completed interagency review last week for a final rule involving an exemption within the International Traffic in Arms Regulations for defense trade between the AUKUS nations of Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. The rule, sent for interagency review in September (see 2509120027) could build on the agency's August 2024 interim final rule, which created the exemption to reduce certain export control barriers under the ITAR (see 2408160019).