Companies in the U.S. and the EU are increasingly being asked by Chinese business partners to certify that they’re not exporting rare earths in violation of Chinese export restrictions, including in some cases through post-shipment audits, lawyers said.
A bipartisan group of House members led by Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, introduced a compromise Russia sanctions bill Dec. 18 that they hammered out through a flurry of year-end negotiations.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., tried and failed Dec. 18 to have the Senate vote on a bill that could lead to additional sanctions on China for providing dual-use items to Russia’s war against Ukraine (see 2508020001).
Open-source intelligence software firm WireScreen this week launched a dataset that tracks electronics trade between China and Russia, it said. The data "captures multiyear electronics trade activity," including details on supplier-customer relationships, product origins and shipment values, the firm said, including the "continued movement of Western-branded electronics through Chinese transshipment points to Russian buyers." WireScreen said the data allows users to identify high-risk parties actively shipping to sanctioned jurisdictions and monitor transshipment patterns.
The U.S. needs to significantly improve its enforcement of Russia sanctions, especially against the country’s shadow fleet and oil industry, said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and other speakers at a Brookings Institution event this week.
Nearly 21,000 companies could be affected by new export license requirements if the Bureau of Industry and Security reinstates its 50% rule, also known as the Affiliates Rule, financial services company Moody's said this week.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Dec. 15 suspended the export privileges of six people after they were convicted of export-related offenses, including illegal shipments involving guns to Mexico, dual-use parts to Russia, items to Chinese companies on the Entity List, and more. The suspensions took effect from the date of their convictions.
A bipartisan group of four senators introduced a bill Dec. 16 to impose additional sanctions targeting Russia’s oil revenue.
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The EU this week announced new sanctions against Russia and created a new way for the bloc to designate people and entities involved in Belarus-related foreign information manipulation and interference.