A growing share of Bureau of Industry and Security export-control settlements under the Trump administration have approached the maximum penalties allowed by law, according to a Center for Strategic …
The reported extension of the U.S.–China Busan trade agreement until January 10, 2027, could prolong the suspension of the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Affiliates Rule. Whether the extension covers that rule, however, remains unconfirmed in the official materials reviewed.
The United States has lifted comprehensive economic sanctions on Syria and is easing defense trade restrictions, but export controls remain uneven across agencies. State’s ITAR amendment does not remove Syria from BIS Country Group E:1 or eliminate Syria-specific EAR licensing requirements. Until Commerce acts, businesses must continue to apply those controls alongside targeted Treasury sanctions.
The State Department has filed correcting amendments to restore provisions inadvertently removed by its September 18 amendments to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). The corrections restore three conditions governing universities’ releases of technical data to foreign employees and two exceptions to restrictions on exemption use involving proscribed destinations.
The changes align the EU list with 2025 decisions of the Wassenaar Arrangement, Australia Group and Nuclear Suppliers Group, while incorporating additional commitments accepted by EU Member States to establish uniform controls.
House Democrats are moving to block the U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear agreement, arguing that it would give Riyadh a path to uranium enrichment without the inspection safeguards Washington required of the United Arab Emirates. The joint resolution of disapproval faces long odds in the Republican-controlled Congress, but it puts the agreement’s central proliferation risks—and the administration’s refusal to release two classified side letters—at the center of the statutory review.
Uploading controlled technology or software to an AI service may constitute an export or release, even without a physical shipment. Nicolò Cusimano, counsel at Bird & Bird in Milan examines how AI complicates compliance under EU, U.S. and UK export-control regimes.
The ISECS principles address a central risk in AI-assisted trade compliance: automation can accelerate decisions while obscuring errors and their basis. The guide recommends human oversight, testing of automatically cleared transactions, and records sufficient to reconstruct material determinations.
DDTC’s interim final rule should lower compliance costs and ease international operations for qualifying civil aircraft equipped with missile defenses, while improving U.S. maintenance providers’ and equipment suppliers’ competitiveness.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has published its fiscal year 2025 annual report to Congress after apparently skipping a public report for fiscal 2024—returning with a markedly shorter, more political and less statistically coherent account of its performance.
The provision would expand opportunities for U.S.–Israeli coproduction but would not exempt participating companies from ITAR. U.S. manufacturers would still need to classify the technology, control Israeli personnel’s access to technical data, obtain appropriate licenses or agreements, and manage retransfers throughout the supply chain.
Jeffrey Kessler is leaving a distinct mark on the Bureau of Industry and Security, pushing the agency toward enforcement, targeted controls and deregulation while seeking a historic increase in funding and personnel. The results have so far been muted.
The fight will test whether the administration can prove that closer U.S.-UAE technology ties outweigh the risk of sensitive equipment reaching China—and whether the decision was insulated from Trump family business interests.
A US nuclear-cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia would let the kingdom pursue uranium enrichment of up to 20% using American technology, without requiring the broader inspections Washington has long promoted for countries seeking sensitive nuclear equipment.
The Commerce Department has failed to implement export-control authority Congress granted in 2022, according to a bipartisan group of senators and House members, leaving foreign intelligence and security agencies, including those in China and Russia, able to obtain American surveillance technology, artificial-intelligence tools and expert assistance.
House Democrats have intensified scrutiny of the Trump administration's decision to ease export controls on the United Arab Emirates, demanding records explaining the Commerce Department's determination that the UAE now qualifies as one of the United States' most trusted export-control partners.
Atempo was accused of concealing exports of U.S.-origin electronics to Russian procurement networks. Its removal follows a paid Washington campaign targeting the agencies responsible for the blacklist.
Plexon Inc. will pay no money under its newly announced settlement with the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, provided the neuroscience-equipment company meets compliance conditions imposed for the next five years.
The rule lets many U.S. commercial drones fly up to three hours and reach most foreign markets without an export license, while retaining controls on sensitive, long-range and military systems.
The settlement is one of the State Department’s larger recent civil export-enforcement actions, with regulators describing BAE’s violations as systemic and requiring three years of independent oversight and compliance reforms.