House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, urged the Biden administration Oct. 18 to give the Treasury and State departments additional resources, including personnel, to speed up implementation of the new sanctions authorities that were enacted into law almost six months ago.
Exports to China
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Oct. 23 will add 26 companies and people to the Entity List for trying to buy controlled U.S. items for China’s military, evade sanctions against Russia, supply sensitive goods to Iran or Pakistan, or for evading U.S. end-use checks, the agency said in a final rule released Oct. 21. BIS will also remove two entities from the list and update the address information for another entity.
It’s unclear exactly how the Treasury Department will use information it receives as part of the notification requirements in its upcoming outbound investment regulations, lawyers said, warning that those notifications could present reputational and business risks for certain American investors in China, especially if members of Congress see them.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned three entities and one person it said are involved in the development and production of Russia’s Garpiya series long-range attack drones, which Moscow uses in its war against Ukraine.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is likely to react “more negatively and more directly” than his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, to the EU’s plan to start taxing carbon-intensive imports, a former U.S. trade official said Oct. 17.
Ten Republican lawmakers asked the Treasury Department Oct. 17 to explain why the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. has apparently declined to review and block Chinese electric vehicle battery maker Gotion from building a plant near a military base in Michigan.
Vietnam Beverage Company Limited reached an $860,000 settlement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control after the agency said two of the company’s subsidiaries violated U.S. sanctions against North Korea. OFAC said the subsidiaries, which produce and sell alcoholic drinks, illegally received more than $1.4 million in payments through U.S. banks for sales of alcohol to North Korea.
China this week renewed antidumping duties on imports of hydroiodic acid from the U.S. and Japan for five years after finding that lifting the tariffs could “damage” China's domestic industry, according to an unofficial translation of a Ministry of Commerce notice. The renewed AD measures, effective Oct. 16, include a 41.1% rate for Japanese companies and a 123.4% rate for American companies. China said the acid has various manufacturing uses, including for integrated circuits.
Matt Cronin, chief investigative counsel for the House Select Committee on China, is leaving Congress for a job in the private sector, he announced on LinkedIn this week. Cronin began working for the committee in July 2023.
China’s Ministry of Commerce issued a set of broad frequently asked questions Oct. 16 on its Unreliable Entity List, including how Beijing decides to add entities to the list, how companies may be removed and the penalties for listed companies. The ministry said it may impose fines “of a corresponding amount according to the severity of the circumstances” against companies added to the list, according to an unofficial translation.