The Commerce Department is considering restricting the number of destination countries that are authorized to receive certain U.S. re-exports that are controlled for national security reasons, the agency said in a notice. The proposed rule would amend the license exception for Additional Permissive Reexports (APR) by removing nations in Country Group D:1, including China, from being eligible to receive those re-exports, Commerce said. The rule would remove APR license eligibility from more than 20 countries. Comments are due June 29.
The United Kingdom’s Export Control Joint Unit updated its export license application forms for firearms, according to an April 23 notice. The forms now include a “supplementary EC4 form,” which is a “continuation sheet” for the EC3 form. The EC3 form is required for exporting firearms to European Union countries.
The European Commission is narrowing the scope of European Union-wide export controls and expanding export exemptions to more territories, according to an April 24 notice. The measures, announced as draft regulations earlier this month (see 2004160033), apply for 30 days. The commission said it would also notify World Trade Organization partners about the changes “along with other EU coronavirus trade-related initiatives.”
The Directorate of Defense Controls on April 23 released its report to Congress on defense exports licensed under the Arms Export Control Act during 2019. The report, which includes an introduction and a memo to Congress, details the value and quantity of the licensed exports for each country destination and the “data on the actual shipments of those licensed transactions,” the DDTC said.
Export controls and trade restrictions are becoming an increasing part of U.S.-China competition despite little clarity about whether they will work in the long term, trade experts said. The measures also seem to lack a clear focus within both the U.S. government and China, with officials disagreeing on how best to impose restrictions, the experts said.
The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls announced a series of compliance, licensing and management measures to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic response measures on industry, the DDTC said in an April 23 notice. The measures include temporary suspensions on certain registration renewal requirements, temporary reductions of certain registration fees and measures to allow companies to work remotely.
Cambodia recently announced changes to its list of prohibited and restricted goods, according to an April 22 alert from KPMG. The changes include additional prohibited goods, a list of goods that require export or import permits, a list of goods that require permits from the exporting country, a list of goods that require international transit permits and further trade guidance, KPMG said. Cambodia added that it may place controls on other items if they present “risks that require urgent measures,” and those controls would be in place for a maximum of six months.
The Commerce Department’s unclear rollout of an export control on geospatial imagery software is causing industry confusion and could lead to broad, unintended impacts on exports of certain artificial intelligence, industry representatives said in interviews. If unchanged, the rule could severely impact a range of companies in the geospatial field, they said, creating the type of broad consequences Commerce officials hoped to avoid (see 1911070014).
The United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade updated its COVID-19 guidance for U.K. traders with a new section on the export control process for personal protective equipment, according to an April 21 notice. The update provides a link to a guidance for PPE export controls issued by the Department of Health and Social Care.
A South Korean bank will pay $86 million after admitting violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, which included processing transactions for sanctioned parties and violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Justice Department said April 20. The Industrial Bank of Korea did not maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program and processed more than $1 billion worth of transactions for sanctioned Iranian entities, the Justice Department said. This was partly due to the bank’s lack of an automated screening program and its poorly trained compliance staff, which fell “months behind” their manual review of transactions. Despite self-disclosing some violations, the bank failed to inform the Treasury Department of at least $990 million worth of illegal transactions, the Justice Department said.