The U.S. government’s approach to export controls is flawed because it's based on outdated assumptions about China's technological prowess, a witness told the House Foreign Affairs Committee at a closed-door roundtable Feb. 12.
India and the U.S. will negotiate a bilateral trade agreement that will cover multiple sectors in tranches, with the first aiming for completion in the fall of 2025, President Donald Turmp and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in their joint statement, released after their meeting Feb. 13. The two leaders also announced plans to increase U.S. military sales to India and possibly reduce defense trade restrictions under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
The U.K. added three people and two entities to its Russia sanctions list on Feb. 14. The individuals are Artem Yuryevich Chaika, who was listed for owning or controlling extractive company First Non-Metallic Company; Pavel Mikhailovich Fradkov, deputy minister of the Ministry of Defense; and Vladimir Viktorovich Selin, head of the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control. The entities are Joint Stock Company Kirov Energomash Plant and LLC Rosatom Additive Technologies.
The State Department needs a better system to review export license applications for firearms, and the Bureau of Industry and Security needs to address employee shortages that are hindering its end-use checks for those exports, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report.
Members of the European Parliament this week called on the EU member states to impose sanctions against the Turkish government for undermining democracy and Nicaraguan officials for human rights violations.
The U.S. defended its designation of Chinese lidar company Hesai Technology as a "Chinese military company" in a Feb. 12 brief at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, responding to a host of arguments from Hesai claiming that the designation wasn't backed by substantial evidence and committed various legal errors (Hesai Technology Co. v. United States, D.D.C. # 24-01381).
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, introduced a bill Feb. 12 that would increase sanctions on Iran's energy sector to deprive Tehran of revenue it uses to fund terrorism.
Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., and Reps. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., introduced a resolution Feb. 13 urging the U.K., France and Germany to reimpose sanctions on Iran for violating its nuclear weapons-related obligations. Tenney said the “snapback” of U.N. sanctions needs to occur before they expire Oct. 18. The sanctions would include export controls, asset freezes and other restrictions on those involved in Iran's nuclear and missile activities. The lawmakers said the European action would complement President Donald Trump's recent efforts to increase Iran sanctions enforcement (see 2502050020).
The U.S. should gradually ease sanctions on Syria to help the war-torn country rebuild, but the lifting of many of those restrictions should be linked to whether Syria’s new leaders live up to their promise to break from their extremist past, two researchers told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Feb. 13.
Former President Joe Biden's administration made the most “aggressive and far-reaching use” of trade tools of any U.S. administration in history, and the new Trump administration is on track to “wield these tools in an even more aggressive manner,” Gibson Dunn said in a 2024 international trade recap released this month. Although the Treasury Department under Biden imposed sanctions at a faster rate than any of his predecessors, the law firm noted that President Donald Trump favors tariffs, which could cause the targets of those tariffs, including U.S. trading partners in Europe and Asia, to deploy similar tools “either in retaliation against U.S. measures or in pursuit of their own strategic interests.”