The Bureau of Industry and Security last week published an updated freight forwarder guidance, outlining forwarders’ compliance responsibilities, the red flags they should be monitoring and a set of best practices they should follow when they’re involved in an export. The agency also issued a new version of its “Don’t Let This Happen to You” document, which includes new summaries and case examples of recent export control investigations.
U.S. companies interested in divesting Russian assets that are subject to the Export Administration Regulations may need to obtain multiple licenses from the U.S. government, a Commerce Department official said March 28.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is gearing up to issue a set of corrections and clarifications to rules it released in October for advanced computing chips and chipmaking tools (see 2310170055), a Commerce Department official said March 28.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on March 29 released an interim final rule to update, correct and clarify its October 2023 chip controls that placed new restrictions on exports of advanced semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China. The 186-page rule takes effect April 4 and seeks public comments on the changes by April 29.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is still developing a proposed rule to prevent sophisticated hacking tools and expertise from being exported to foreign governments that spy on their own citizens, a Commerce Department official said March 27.
The Bureau of Industry and Security recently completed a round of interagency review for a final rule to make tweaks, clarifications and corrections to its recent chip export control updates released in October (see 2310170055). BIS sent the correction rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Nov. 27 (see 2311280005), and the review was completed March 21. BIS has said the agency is looking to clarify several issues that exporters have raised since the controls were updated and correct other provisions that “may not have fully hit the mark we intended” (see 2311060067, 2311160044 and 2401260051).
The Census Bureau this week alerted export filers about two new license codes in the Automated Export System for License Exception Notified Advanced Computing (NAC), the exception introduced last year by the Bureau of Industry and Security for certain exports of semiconductors that fall just below the agency’s most recently updated chip control parameters (see 2311200042 and 2401030053). Companies using the license exception and exporting certain chips must submit notifications to BIS with data about the chip, including its total processing performance, the name of the exporter and other parties to the transactions, and the volume and value of the shipment.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on three information collections involving export activities. Comments for each are due May 24.
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week suspended the export privileges of one person for illegally providing services to Iran and two people for illegal weapons shipments to Mexico.
China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. “potentially” violated U.S. export control laws by producing 7 nanometer computing chips with American equipment it obtained before the Bureau of Industry and Security imposed updated export controls on chip-making tools last year, BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez said.