The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned eight North Korean agents for their work facilitating sanctions evasion – six of them based in third countries – in an action the agency said comes in response to a recent military reconnaissance satellite launch by North Korea. The North Korean agents, including Russia-based Un Hyok Choe and Myong So, China-based Myong Chol Jang and Phyong Guk Kang, and Iran-based Kyong Il Kang and Sung Il Ri, engage in revenue generation and missile-related technology procurement in support of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction program, OFAC said.
Exports to China
A House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy and Regulatory Affairs hearing focused on the need for more domestic mining of critical minerals, but administration witnesses noted that imports -- and subsidizing processing of domestically mined minerals -- are just as essential to uninterrupted supply.
The U.S. sanctioned more than 20 people and companies this week for helping to finance Iranian military groups, including by helping the Iranian government sell oil and other commodities to overseas buyers. The Office of Foreign Assets Control said these sales help Iran generate billions of dollars for its Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, its Iranian Armed Forces General Staff and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force.
The Biden administration should investigate all Chinese lidar technology companies to determine whether they should be placed on the Entity List or made subject to U.S. investment restrictions, the House Select Committee on China said in a letter this week. The lawmakers said lidar, or light detection and ranging, is being used in autonomous systems and robotics but isn’t subject to export controls, potentially allowing a loophole for Chinese companies to acquire U.S. technologies for use in lidar systems that can aid the country’s military.
The European Commission on Nov. 28 imposed provisional antidumping duties on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic product imports from China. The duties will range from 6.6% to 24.2%, and companies not given a specific rate will face the 24.2% dumping rate, the commission announced. It said the duties stem from an EU investigation provisionally finding that Chinese imports present "a threat of a clearly foreseeable and imminent injury to EU industry."
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The French government didn't pressure the European Commission to launch the countervailing duty investigation on electric vehicle batteries from China announced in October (see 2310040012), said Martin Lukas, who heads the commission's trade defense directorate. Lukas, speaking on the commission’s Trade-Off podcast released Nov. 28, said the commission had been studying China’s increasing share of the EU’s EV battery market and said the investigation wasn’t brought because of urging from any single EU member state, despite some media reports.
A senior State Department official this week said the U.S. is planning to eventually include other nations in an ongoing effort to reduce burdensome defense export control requirements for Australia and the U.K. In perhaps the strongest endorsement yet by a U.S. official of the concept, Bonnie Jenkins, undersecretary for arms control and international security, said the U.S. wants to involve other nations after it works through its current process under the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership.
The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body on Nov. 27 agreed to Indonesia's request to set up a dispute panel to review the EU's countervailing duties on biodiesel from Indonesia, the WTO announced. The EU said it believes its duties "are fully justified, adding that it is confident its measures will be declared in line with WTO law," the WTO said. The U.S., the U.K., Norway, Russia, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, China, Canada, Argentina and Turkey reserved their third party rights to take part in the panel proceedings.
The Commerce Department quietly stopped approving new licenses for firearms exports to three Latin American countries months before publicly announcing a broader suspension in October for dozens of other nations.