Congressional-Executive Commission on China Chair Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and co-chair Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore) are calling on the Administration to impose export controls on technology used by China to collect biometric data in Tibet. The request follows a prior letter by CECC Commissioners to the CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific that expressed concerns that Thermo Fisher products were used for mass biometric data collection and surveillance that “could enable further gross violations” of the human rights of Tibetans.
US and European Union officials met Oct. 24 to discuss insurance issues at a session of the Joint Committee established under the US-EU Agreement on Prudential Measures Regarding Insurance and Reinsurance. The agreement addresses three areas of prudential insurance oversight: (1) reinsurance; (2) group supervision and (3) the exchange of insurance information between supervisors.
The Commerce Department announced Oct. 24 it will begin a review of Vietnam’s non-market economy status. The review comes at the request of Vietnam. On September 8, government of Vietnam filed an official request that Commerce consider it a market economy citing the country’s economic reforms made in recent years.
The bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) held a hearing last week on forced labor in China’s seafood industry and how seafood caught and processed with forced labor ends up in the U.S. supply chains. The CECC’s Chairs, Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) were joined at the hearing by Commissioner Thea Lee, the Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs at the Department of Labor. In his opening statement Mr. Smith cited the work of The Outlaw Ocean Project whose reporting exposed a “disconcerting pattern of People’s Republic of China (PRC) based companies exploiting the forced labor of Uyghurs and North Koreans to process substantial quantities of seafood destined for the U.S. market.
The European Commission is stepping up efforts to make sure that sensitive technologies do not fall into the wrong hands, by paving the way for better coordination of export controls at EU level. Under the EU’s Dual-Use Regulation, Member States have the opportunity to coordinate their export controls on items for which export controls have not been agreed multilaterally.
The United States has asked Mexico to review whether workers at Tecnología Modificada S.A. de C.V., in Nuevo Laredo, a subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The facility produces remanufactured automotive parts. The request, made in response to a petition, marks the sixteenth time the United States has formally invoked the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRM) in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
On November 6, 2023, Assistant Secretary for Export Administration Thea D. Rozman Kendler will conduct a public briefing on the two interim final rules and one final rule: “Implementation of Additional Export Controls: Certain Advanced Computing Items; Supercomputer and Semiconductor End Use; Updates and Corrections” and “Export Controls on Semiconductor Manufacturing Items,” which were both filed for public inspection at the Federal Register on October 18, 2023. BIS published an associated final rule, “Entity List Additions,” in the Federal Register on October 19, 2023.
Rep. Mike Gallagher aimed his lance at the Ivory Tower, in a speech Monday to the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Universities, urging the leaders to share his appreciation of the Chinese threat. Mr. Gallagher decried university administrators' perceived indifference to CCP surveillance and intimidation, an ill-regulated flow of expertise overseas, and the role of US Capital in accelerating Chinese military innovation.
United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced Monday that the United States has asked Mexico to review whether workers at the Asiaway Automotive Components Mexico facility in San Luis Potosiare being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Asiaway Automotive Components Mexico performs die casting and machining of aluminum parts for "Tier One" suppliers such as Magna, Cummins, and Robert Bosch, as well as General Motors and BMW. The plant opened in June of 2023 and employs 300 workers. Parent company Ningbo Asiaway Automotive Components Co.,Ltd is a privately held company based in Ningbo, an industrial hub near Shanghai.
The leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party are expanding their investigation into US venture capital firms investing in China’s high technology by launching an inquiry into Sequoia Capital and Sequoia Capital China. Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc) and ranking Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill) are seeking information about Sequoia's investments into PRC artificial intelligence, semiconductor and quantum computing companies, as well as the announced split.
The Administration is being slow in carrying out enforcement activities to prevent goods made with forced labor from entering the US market, Congressional lawmakers and witnesses at a House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing. Customs and Border Protection needs to take a more proactive approach to enforcing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, Homeland Security oversight, accountability and enforcement subcommittee Chairman Dan Bishop (R-NC) commented.
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating two individuals and four entities that form a core part of Specially Designated National (SDN) and Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik’s patronage network. Members of this network, which include Dodik’s adult children, facilitate Dodik’s ongoing corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) RS entity, allowing him to siphon public funds from the RS and enrich himself and his family at the expense of BiH citizens and functional governance in the country.
During its October 2023 virtual meeting, the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) agreed to suspend Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s FIU, from membership with the group due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This official suspension comes on top of previous Egmont Group measures to revoke Rosfinmonitoring’s formal group leadership, advisory, and representative positions, ability to host meetings, ability to physically attend meetings, and in-kind agreements.
In response to the signing of an electoral roadmap agreement between Venezuela’s Unitary Platform and representatives of Maduro, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued 4 General Licenses suspending select sanctions. The G/Ls permit limited trading in Oil, Gold and certain Venezuelan sovereign bonds and PdVSA debt and equity.
FinCEN has identified the following red flag indicators to help detect, prevent, and report potential suspicious activity related to Hamas’s terrorist financing activity. As no single red …
The OECD Released its Phase 4 Report on Brazil's implementtion of the Anit-Bribery Convention October 17. This report details Brazil's achievements and challenges in respect to implementation and enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, as well as progress made since the Phase 3 evaluation in 2014.
A U.S. citizen residing in the Principality of Monaco pleaded guilty to tax evasion for concealing from the IRS over $5,130,000 in income derived from a real estate transaction and securities investments in offshore bank accounts.
The US. State Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, in coordination with partners from the Republic of Korea Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Police Agency, and National Intelligence Service are releasing a joint public service announcement (PSA) with updated guidance on red flag indicators and due diligence measures to help companies avoid hiring Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) information technology (IT) workers posing as non-DPRK nationals. This update identifies new tradecraft used by DPRK IT workers since the release of the 2022 advisories, including new indicators of potential DPRK IT worker activity and additional due diligence measures the international community, private sector, and public can take to prevent the hiring of DPRK IT workers.
The Commerce Department appears to be considering a fast-track system, posting on their website: "Submit your Israel licensing requests here: IsraelEmergencyLicense@bis.doc.gov". There is no further guidance, including whether the application must be submitted through the electronic export license application, known as SNAP, and the time limit for issuing ”emergency” export licenses.
Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson shared an update on his teams efforts to revamp money laundering enforcement at Deloitte's 15th Annual Anti-Money Laundering Conference. Mr. Nelson’s talk focused on the financing of terrorism, specifically targeting Hamas and Treasury's efforts to disrupt these networks in collaboration with international partners.