Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has removed multiple companies from a list of flagged foreign suppliers accused of illegal sales to Russia, including one after the company told BIS it was added by mistake, Export Compliance Daily has learned.
The Bureau of Industry and Security again renewed temporary denial orders for three Russian airlines accused of violating U.S. export controls against Russia. BIS first suspended the export privileges of Aeroflot, Azur Air and UTair in 2022, barring the airlines from participating in transactions with items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (see 2204070010), and has renewed their denial orders several times (see 2309270004). BIS said all three airlines continue to "act in blatant disregard" for U.S. export controls by continuing to operate aircraft subject to the EAR. The orders include a table of recent flights operated by each airline.
Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi pleaded guilty last week to participating in a scheme to convince a U.S. person to move hundreds of thousands of dollars, in violations of U.S. sanctions, DOJ said. Bazzi, who was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018 for helping to finance the terror group Hezbollah, agreed to forfeit the nearly $830,000 involved in the transaction and to be removed from the U.S. after his sentence. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
Lawmakers plan to take action this week on sanctions-related measures aimed at Georgia, Hong Kong and the Yemen-based Houthis.
Austria, Estonia, Lithuania and the Netherlands on Sept. 22 signed onto a statement committing to place export controls around spyware technology, joining the U.S. and more than 15 other countries as part of an effort to raise trade guardrails for cyber-related items used for human rights violations.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed export restrictions and other trade issues during a Sept. 21 meeting, agreeing to order their governments to “redouble efforts to address export controls, enhance high technology commerce, and reduce barriers to technology transfer between our two countries.” They said they will address “technology security” through the India-U.S. Strategic Trade Dialogue and noted India’s ratification of certain agreements under the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (see 2403140003), according to the White House statement. The two leaders also spoke about agricultural trade, saying the U.S. and India will “enhance cooperation with the private sector through discussions on regulatory issues and innovation to enhance bilateral trade,” the White House said.
U.S. companies and trade groups applauded a recent Bureau of Industry and Security rule that expanded the agency’s export control exemption for certain standards-setting activities, saying the change will help remove licensing barriers faced by American officials at international bodies working on emerging technology standards. But at least one group asked BIS to continue expanding the exemption to cover a wider set of technologies discussed in standards bodies involving the electronics, telecommunications and aviation industries.
U.K. exporters can now use the country’s new digital export licensing system, Licensing for International Trade (LITE), to apply for standard individual export licenses, the country announced last week. The U.K. had previously been allowing only certain exporters to use the system as a “private beta” ahead of the government’s full translation from its previous export licensing system known as SPIRE, or the Shared Primary Information Resource Environment (see 2408080044). The U.K. said it plans to transition all standard individual export licenses applications off SPIRE in the “coming months.” It also noted that some exporters and export applications may not yet be eligible under LITE, including exports involving certain sanctioned jurisdictions.
European Commission and Chinese officials met last week for a “frank and constructive” discussion about the EU’s countervailing duty investigation on Chinese electric vehicles, the commission said in a Sept. 20 news release. During the talks, EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao agreed to “instruct their respective teams to put maximum effort to work towards a mutually agreeable solution” and to continue communicating, but Dombrovskis also stressed that the probe is meant to address oversized Chinese subsidies and complies with all World Trade Organization rules.