Exporters and industry groups warned the Bureau of Industry and Security this month about placing new eligibility restrictions on License Exception Strategic Trade Authorization (STA) for several technologies critical to their businesses, saying that could disrupt their supply chains and saddle the agency with an influx of license requests. At least one company urged BIS to launch what it said is a much-needed review of its space-related export controls, which could benefit from the license exception but that haven’t been overhauled since 2017.
Exporters are reporting container costs changing from week to week due to attacks by Houthi rebels on commercial cargo ships moving through the Red Sea, said Eric Bartsch, the secretary of the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council and the American Pulse Association. Bartsch, speaking during a Feb. 7 Federal Maritime Commission hearing on Red Sea shipping disruptions (see 2402070078), said many of pea, lentil and pulse exporters are small businesses, and 65% of their crops are exported.
The U.K. will allow a general license involving the price cap on Russian oil to expire later this month, according to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. The license, set to expire Feb. 18, authorizes the supply or delivery by ship of Russian crude oil and oil products below the $60 per barrel price cap. The U.K. didn't provide more information.
The EU General Court on Feb. 7 dismissed sanctions removal applications from Russians Alisher Usmanov and Igor Shuvalov, according to an unofficial translation.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls released its notifications to Congress of recently proposed export licenses. The notifications cover licenses submitted from January through March, April through June and July through September, and include exports to Japan, Australia, Israel, Brazil, Canada, the U.K., Ukraine, Turkey, Norway, Germany and elsewhere.
A Missouri-based defense contractor illegally sent export-controlled military technology data overseas to produce items for his contracts with the Defense Department, DOJ announced last week.
The Treasury Department last week released its 2024 money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing risk assessments, highlighting areas where companies can focus compliance resources and help “inform their own risk mitigation strategies.”
U.S. enforcement officials last week continued to warn about upcoming export control penalties, saying they hope those cases encourage companies to devote more resources to their compliance programs.
Cyprus is working to establish a "National Sanctions Implementation Unit" by the end of 2024 after a project manager and a group of experts were appointed to help set up the agency, the Ministry of Finance announced Feb. 5, according to an unofficial translation. The new enforcement body will seek to enforce sanctions laws and boost the existing legislative framework.
Hesai Technology, the largest Chinese lidar company by sales, plans to sue the Pentagon for adding it to a list of companies with ties to China’s military (see 2402010018), the company announced Feb. 8. Hesai was added to the list “without any explanation or justification,” CEO Yifan Li said, calling the U.S. decision “unjust, capricious, and meritless.”