The Bureau of Industry and Security has started restricting the public sessions of its technical advisory committee meetings, a move that has jeopardized a crucial outlet for industry feedback about new regulations, current and former administration officials and industry representatives said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week added 32 entities to the Entity List, most of them based in China, for either circumventing export controls on China, supplying controlled items to Russia, evading BIS end-use checks, supporting China’s military modernization, or other activities that BIS said breached U.S. export rules.
The Trump administration has withdrawn the nomination for Landon Heid to be the assistant secretary for export administration at the Bureau of Industry and Security. Steven Haines is serving in that role on an interim basis as he awaits Senate confirmation as assistant secretary for industry and analysis within the International Trade Administration, according to a BIS official. Spokespeople for BIS and the White House didn't respond to requests for comment.
Although Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. have taken steps to ease defense trade restrictions, companies are still being cautious because progress around AUKUS appears to have stalled, researchers and U.K. lawmakers said this week. They also said it’s still too early for the three nations to invite other countries to join, adding that they need to first prove that the concept works among themselves.
The State Department’s recently published spring 2025 regulatory agenda previews several export control rules that the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is hoping to issue this year, including revisions to the U.S. Munitions List, updates to the definition for defense services, updates to its AUKUS exemption, and more.
A British bank failed to stop a newly sanctioned person from withdrawing money even after the U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation warned the bank beforehand that the person soon would be designated, OFSI said in an enforcement notice released this week.
A new executive order signed last week by President Donald Trump authorizes sanctions and export controls against any country determined to have wrongfully detained U.S. nationals. The order allows the State Department to designate certain foreign countries a State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention, which would authorize International Emergency Economic Powers Act sanctions against the country and export controls under the Arms Export Control Act, the Export Control Reform Act “or any other Federal law.”
H.R. McMaster, former national security adviser during the first Trump administration, said he disagrees with the government's plan to approve exports of Nvidia's advanced H20 chips to China (see 2508220003) and hopes the administration soon develops a more coherent economic security strategy.
The Commerce Department’s spring 2025 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security features more than 20 new rulemakings that could introduce new or update existing export controls, including restrictions over advanced AI chips, emerging technologies, Russia-related controls and other revisions to the Export Administration Regulations.
A Texas-based freight forwarder will pay the Office of Foreign Assets Control more than $1.6 million to settle allegations that it violated sanctions against Venezuela and Iran. OFAC said company employees bypassed its sanctions compliance program procedures by working with a designated Venezuelan airline and an Iran-linked aircraft to transport goods from Mexico to a customer in Argentina.