The elder of two Indiana brothers was sentanced to 200 months in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release, after pleading guilty to attempting to provide material support or resources, namely, firearms, to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Moyad Dannon's brother, Mahde Dannon, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in October 2021, after pleading guilty to the same charges. At the time of their arrests (2018) the men were aged 21 and 20, respectively.
After a year of limited productivity, Congress has decided to get some work done in the last working week of the year. The House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman held a markup session to consider various measures regarding export controls, restricting the flow of foreign nations’ support to the Taliban, and strengthening sanctions against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups on Wednesday, December 13th.
On December 12, the United States and the Philippines held the first meeting of a Labor Working Group under the U.S - Philippines Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), which was established by President Biden and President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos in May 2023. U.S. officials encouraged "increased concrete actions and bilateral engagement" to protect union organizers against violence and harassment, promote workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, and facilitate dialogue among U.S. and Philippine governments, worker organizations, and employer organizations to inform the objectives of the Labor Working Group.
Following a year of hearings and demands for reams of disclosure from government and industry, the House Select Committee on China released its work product for 2023. The 53 page report enumerated recommendations to address Beijing's human rights violations and military modernization, focusing on halting the genocide of the Uyghur population and curtailing profits from forced Uyghur labor. Additionally, it aims to build a more credible deterrent in the Taiwan Strait.
"Don't try to bullshit a bullshitter," admonished Chairman Brian Mast (R-FL), as Assistant Commerce Secretary for Export Administration Thea Kendler responded to his subcommittee's questions on decision making in the Bureau of Industry and Security. Observers who thought Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing "Reviewing the Bureau of Industry and Security, Part II: U.S. Export Controls in an Era of Strategic Competition," with Ms. Kendler and Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matt Axelrod would inform the conversation on enforcement priorities and resources may have been disappointed December 12, as the committee's questioning centered on a deal removing China's Ministry of Public Security’s Institute of Forensic Science (IFS) from the entity list.
The Bureau of Industry and Security released a beta version of its new website in December, making changes to functionality and user experience.
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the State Departemnt announced sanctions on over 100 entities and individuals including those engaged in sanctions evasion in numerous third countries, complicit in furthering Russia’s ability to wage its war against Ukraine, and responsible for bolstering Russia’s future energy production and export capacity. The December 11 action highlights Russia’s utilization of Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as well as the use of complex transnational networks and third-country cut-outs, to acquire much-needed technology and equipment for its war economy.
The U.S. Treasury on December 11 slapped sanctions on a former Afghan official, his son, and related entities, accusing them of misappropriating millions of dollars of funds provided by U.S. government contracts. The sanctions statement cited former Afghan parliament speaker Mir Rahman Rahmani and his son Ajmal Rahmani. "Through their Afghan companies, the Rahmanis perpetrated a complex procurement corruption scheme resulting in the misappropriation of millions of dollars from U.S. Government-funded contracts that supported Afghan security forces," it said, adding that other family members were also designated.
The European Council and the Parliament have reached a provisional agreement on creating a new European authority for countering money laundering and financing of terrorism (AMLA) - the centrepiece of the anti-money laundering package, which aims to protect EU citizens and the EU's financial system against money laundering and terrorist financing. AMLA will have direct and indirect supervisory powers over high-risk obliged entities in the financial sector. In addition to supervisory powers and in order to ensure compliance, in cases of serious, systematic or repeated breaches of directly applicable requirements, the Authority will impose pecuniary sanctions on the selected obliged entities.
The Council and the European Parliament concluded their negotiations for an EU law which introduces criminal offences and penalties for the violation of EU sanctions. This directive ensures that those who violate or circumvent EU sanctions will be prosecuted. The law lays down that member states will need to define certain actions as criminal offences.
The United States announced the successful resolution of the first USMCA facility-specific Rapid Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRM) petition in the garment sector. The US action comes in response to a petition alleging that workers at an Industrias del Interior garment facility in the state of Aguascalientes, were being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The Factory sews for US fashion brand Levi Strauss & Co.
Five Federal trade enforcement agencies issued a " Know Your Cargo" announcement to industry Monday, describing best practices for shippers to comply with the current enforcement regime. The Department of Justice, Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations, State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), and Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued the joint compliance note, advising entities in maritime and transportation industries to implement compliance measures against illicit practices, particularly in high-risk areas and cargo types.
A California man was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for conspiring to procure and illegally ship high-end computer servers from the United States to Iran.
Questions are being raised about a new report on the relationship between digital trade and development issued jointly by the World Trade Organization along with the International Monetary Fund, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Some of the major findings in the report seem flawed on several grounds, raising serious questions about the use of the report for WTO members, said people engaged in the negotiations.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Mexico’s Secretary of Finance and Public Credit Rogelio Ramírez de la O signed a Memorandum of Intent Thursday to affirm the importance of foreign investment screening in protecting national security and express their desire to establish a bilateral working group for regular exchanges of information about how investment screening can best protect national security.
The Department of State issued the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (UHRPA) Report to Congress; Treasury is sanctioning two Chinese government officials for their connection to serious human rights abuses in Xinjiang; and the Department of Homeland Security-led interagency Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force added of three PRC entities to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List.
Thursday, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) released three rules as part of a broad effort to ease several categories of export licensing requirements and expand the availability of export license exceptions for key allied and partner countries, as well as for members of certain multilateral export control regimes.
A report by the House Foreign Affairs Committee highlights shortcomings in the U.S. export control system and calls for reforms, legislative and administrative. Drawing extensively on the work of former Defense Department Export Control Official Stephen Coonen, the report offers a preview of the reception BIS officials can expect in next week's hearing. "Both the Trump and Biden administrations, principally from the White House, have rightly begun exerting more control over the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). However, no administration will be able to fully leverage the power of export controls to protect U.S. national security without Congressional action. Now, Congress must solidify the efforts of successive administrations so our future will be better secured," the authors assert. Central to the committee's findings is the concern that BIS, under the Commerce Department, has been too lenient in granting licenses for dual-use technology transfers to China, failing to adequately consider the likelihood of military or surveillance use.
Following Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s call for additional funds for the Bureau of Industry and Security – the Department’s enforcement arm for export controls, Republican members of Congress called for a harder line on China first.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee announced the Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability will convene a hearing entitled, “Reviewing the Bureau of Industry and Security, Part II: U.S. Export Controls in an Era of Strategic Competition” on Tuesday, December 12th.