House Select Committee on China Republicans wrote to President Joe Biden, asking him to make human rights and military demands of Chinese President Xi Jinping when they meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which will happen Nov. 15-17.
Exports to China
The Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise is investigating Zara Canada for alleged use of Uyghur forced labor in the company's supply chain, CORE said. The investigation, which CORE began Nov. 6, comes in response to a complaint filed by 28 civil society organizations in June 2022.
President Joe Biden this week extended a national emergency that authorizes a ban on certain U.S. investments in Chinese military companies. Biden in 2021 expanded the ban, first issued during the Trump administration, by widening the scope of the restrictions to cover companies operating in China’s surveillance technology sector (see 2106030067).
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a temporary denial order on Nov. 7 against seven people and three companies for orchestrating a scheme to illegally export millions of dollars worth of export-controlled dual-use electronics to Russia. BIS said the U.S.-origin items were bought by Russian procurement agents and transshipped through other countries before being delivered to Russian companies with ties to the country’s military.
The top Democrat on the House Select Committee on China, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, said Wall Street and other investors want the government to provide a negative list they can hand off to their compliance teams.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is planning to soon issue a rule that will offer clarifications and corrections to its recently updated export controls on advanced semiconductors and chipmaking equipment, said Thea Kendler, the agency’s assistant secretary for export administration (see 2310170055).
CBP officers seized a shipment of China-bound deuterium cylinders that was exported without a license, the agency said in a statement on Oct. 31. The shipment, which was seized on Oct. 18 in Norfolk, Virginia, was worth a little more than $175,000, CBP said.
The House on Nov. 3 passed a bill that could lead to new primary and secondary sanctions on foreign ports and refineries that process or accept petroleum exported from or originating in Iran. The Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum Act, passed 342-69, could also lead to sanctions on any entity that “transports, offloads, or otherwise deals in petroleum originating in Iran, including vessels engaging in ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum,” according to a press release from Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who introduced the bill alongside Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.
The U.S. this week announced a spate of new Russia-related sanctions and export controls, targeting people and companies supplying Russia’s military, aiding its defense industrial complex or operating in various Russian financial, metals, government and procurement sectors. The measures include additions to the Commerce Department’s Entity List and more than 200 combined sanctions by the Treasury and State departments targeting businesses in China, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere for sending export-controlled components to Russia.
The Commerce Department again renewed a temporary export denial order for Mahan Airways because the airline continues to violate the order and the Export Administration Regulations. Mahan Airways has been on the banned list since 2008, and Commerce in its Oct. 31 notice said the Iranian airline has continued flights between Iran and Iraq, Russia, China and Pakistan in violation of U.S. export controls. BIS also highlighted its "continued investigation" into Mahan’s recent acquisition of an Airbus A340 with Iranian tail number EP-MJA, which the agency said had flown between Tehran and Moscow as recently as Oct. 25.