The Census Bureau updated the Schedule B and Harmonized Tariff Schedule tables in the Automated Export System to accept changes to the new Jan. 1 codes, the agency said in a Jan. 2 email. Census said AES will accept shipments with “outdated codes” for 30 days beyond their Dec. 31 expiration date, but reporting an outdated code after the grace period will result in a “fatal error.” Census also said it updated the Automated Commercial Environment AESDirect program with the codes, and the program will also accept outdated codes during the grace period.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Jan. 2 published its annual export enforcement year in review, outlining the various penalties it imposed, indictments and guilty pleas it helped bring, guidance documents it issued and Entity List additions during 2024. The summary highlights enforcement actions against China, Russia and Iran; the due diligence best practices and recommendations BIS issued to exporters, financial institutions, and academia; export control-related partnerships the U.S. formed with trading partners; and more.
The Bureau of Industry and Security’s record-setting enforcement pace over the last several years has raised the agency’s profile and convinced more businesses to invest in compliance, said Matthew Axelrod, the top BIS export enforcement official. But Axelrod said he thinks companies can do more.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Jan. 6 will add 13 companies to the Entity List for illegally shipping export-controlled items in support of China’s military modernization efforts or Pakistan’s ballistic missile program. The entities are located in Myanmar, China and Pakistan, the agency said in a final rule released Jan. 3. They will be subject to license requirements for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations, and licenses will be reviewed under a presumption of denial.
Brian Nichols, the State Department’s assistant secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs since 2021, is retiring from the government, the agency announced Dec. 31. Nichols had worked on various sanctions policy issues during his time with the agency, including around Venezuela (see 2312060052), and had vowed during his 2021 confirmation hearing to aggressively sanction human rights violators (see 2105190038).
Nathan Swinton is leaving DOJ to become the Bureau of Industry and Security's new chief counsel, he announced on LinkedIn. He was DOJ's senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for national security.
The Automated Export System on Jan. 1 will begin rejecting filings of shipments controlled under U.S. Munitions List Category XXI if they don’t include a valid State Department commodity jurisdiction determination number, the Census Bureau said this week. Census is also putting in place new AES codes to address a “workaround” used by some exporters to ship Foreign Military Sales (FMS) items that aren’t described on the USML.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week published the third quarterly update of its boycott requester list, a list of entities that have asked other companies to boycott goods from certain countries in violation of the Export Administration Regulations.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is asking users of SNAP-R, the agency’s export application submission system, to verify that the email address in their user profile is correct and valid to prepare for upcoming “enhancements” to the SNAP-R system. BIS said it’s planning to replace users’ current log-in ID with their email address “to enable the required two-factor authentication procedures.” It said users should update their profiles with a “unique” email address by Jan 31.
Space industry associations and companies largely welcomed a recent State Department proposal to modernize U.S. space-related export controls, although they asked for several clarifications, fewer export control guardrails and an extended timeline to allow space firms to update their compliance programs.