Chip company ASML Netherlands may refuse job applicants who may not be able to comply with U.S. export regulations, an independent Netherlands human rights monitor ruled this month, saying the refusal doesn't violate Dutch anti-discrimination laws. The monitor said ASML is justified in not hiring applicants from certain countries to positions where they could access U.S.-controlled dual-use technologies, according to an unofficial translation of the judgment, otherwise ASML could face “major risks of sanctions” from the U.S.
The EU is preparing to revamp its dual-use export control regime to better target emerging technologies, said Jean-Charles van Eeckhaute, a senior European Commission official. Van Eeckhaute said the commission already has begun work on a new list of dual-use technologies -- which the bloc hopes to finalize by September -- that may warrant new restrictions.
The EU levied its 11th sanctions package against Russia June 23, imposing a host of new export restrictions, individual designations and "new tools to counter circumvention and information warfare," the European Council announced. The new designations target 71 people and 33 entities involved in military activities, political decision-making, the spread of disinformation, the forced adoption of Ukrainian children to Russia and Russian information technology companies offering technology to Russian intelligence agencies.
Many companies are grappling with how best to comply with the Commerce Department’s foreign direct product rule, “one of the key areas” still “unaddressed” by the agency’s regulations and guidance, said Kim Strosnider, a trade lawyer with Covington. She said Commerce’s compliance expectations for the FDP rule are rising despite due diligence challenges faced by industry, pointing to the agency’s record $300 million penalty against Seagate Technology in April (see 2305080029 and 2304190071).
China’s recent restrictions on Micron products are having broader than expected consequences for U.S. exporters, a trade industry conference heard last week, and may portend how future Chinese retaliatory actions will affect U.S. companies.
CBP is inching closer to mandating electronic export manifest, with rail EEM the farthest along but air EEM still needing work, said David Garcia, program manager of the agency’s outbound enforcement and policy branch. Garcia said the agency is aiming to publish them in the Federal Register “within the next year or two.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security is considering tweaking regulatory language that calls on exporters to conduct a five-year review of activities that preceded their voluntary self-disclosures. The change could make it so the language only applies to more serious disclosures, said the top BIS export enforcement official, Maththew Axelrod, and would represent another step in the agency’s effort to draw more BIS and industry resources toward addressing significant violations as opposed to minor or technical ones.
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The Department of Defense recently released a new set of recommendations designed to speed up military goods exports under its Foreign Military Sales program, an initiative long requested by defense companies. DOD said the recommendations highlight “key FMS pressure points” and are aimed at “breaking historical inefficiencies in the United States' transfer of defense articles and services to foreign allies and partners.”
A Latvia-based bank reached a $3.4 million settlement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control to resolve allegations it violated U.S. sanctions relating to Crimea, OFAC said June 20. Swedbank Latvia AS, a subsidiary of Sweden-based Swedbank AB, allowed a customer to use its e-banking platform from an internet protocol address in Crimea to send payments to persons in Crimea through U.S. correspondent banks, OFAC said, which resulted in 386 violations of U.S. sanctions.