The United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade on Dec. 5 issued updated guidance on 19 open general export licenses. The guidance documents cover OGELs for chemicals, software and technology for military goods for individual use, dual-use items for oil and gas exploration, military surplus vehicles, goods for deployed U.K. forces, military goods for demonstration, historic military goods, military goods exported for repair or replacement under warranty, information security items, low value shipments, military goods exported for exhibition, dual-use goods exported for repair or replacement under warranty, category C goods, cryptographic development, dual-use goods exported after repair or replacement under warranty, technology for dual use items, small arms and light weapons, PCBs and components for dual use items, and OGEL X.
Chubb Limited, a Swiss holding company, was fined about $65,000 for more than 20,000 violations of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said in an enforcement notice. The violations were the responsibility of ACE Limited -- an insurance and reinsurance service provider with locations in Switzerland, U.S. and Britain -- which merged with Chubb Corp. in 2016 to form Chubb Limited.
Huawei is urging suppliers to move operations offshore to avoid U.S. sanctions and export controls, which would violate U.S. law, according to a Dec. 3 Reuters report. The Chinese technology giant has been “openly advocating” for companies to escape the jurisdiction of U.S. controls so sales can continue, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Reuters. “Anybody who does move the product out specifically to avoid the sanction ... that’s a violation of U.S. law,” Ross said. “So here you have Huawei encouraging American suppliers to violate the law.”
In the Nov. 25 - Dec. 2 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
As the European Union prepares revised regulations of its dual-use export controls (see 1906050039), EU industries are “divided” over whether human rights violations should be an “explicit justification” for export controls, according to a briefing of the EU review released Nov. 26. The 11-page briefing, released by the European Parliament, details how the controls would be changed, including impacts on export controls of surveillance technology, a revamp of the EU’s “licensing architecture” and a focus on terrorism and human rights.
Those who advise NAFTA stakeholders say that it looks like a factory-level inspection regime will be part of what Democrats get in their edits to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but how disruptive that will be for businesses is completely cloudy. Kellie Meiman Hock, a managing partner at McLarty Associates, said she thinks there are ways the inspections could be done that would not make Mexico feel like American government officials are deciding whether Mexican labor laws are being followed. Hock said the two governments could select inspectors who travel together, or it could be a coalition of non-governmental organizations, as was mobilized after more than 1,000 textile workers died in a factory collapse in Bangladesh.
The Department of Commerce published its fall 2019 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security. The agenda includes a new mention of its intent to potentially control certain additive manufacturing equipment, or 3D printing, used in “energetic materials” as part of BIS’s effort to restrict sales of emerging technologies (see 1911210051). The notice of proposed rulemaking aims to gather feedback from industries while “discussions are ongoing” at the Wassenaar Arrangement. BIS said it aims to issue the proposed rule in November.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that a resolution to the negotiations between the Democrats in the working group and the Trump administration on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is “imminent," and that she believes it can be a template for future trade agreements. Pelosi, D-Calif., who was speaking at her weekly press conference on Nov. 14, suggested that the AFL-CIO would not argue against a "yes" vote for the NAFTA rewrite. "I think we'll see what the implementation is, and the enforcement is, and I think it will be a value that is shared by our friends in labor as well as the Democrats in Congress," she said.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Oct. 21-25 in case they were missed.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security is amending the Export Administration Regulations to further restrict exports and re-exports to Cuba, BIS said in a notice. The amendments change BIS licensing policies and exceptions for certain aircrafts and vessels, establish a 10 percent de minimis level for Cuba, make the Cuban government ineligible for certain donations and clarify the scope of unlicensed telecommunication items the Cuban government can receive. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs recently said it completed its review of the rule (see 1910150041)