CBP hopes to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking to eventually mandate electronic export manifest (see 2207180041 and 2205060015) by the end of this year, said Jim Swanson, an agency official. The agency has written the regulations for ocean, air and rail manifest but is in the middle of a lengthy government review process before it can publish the NPRM in the Federal Register and officially request public comments, Swanson said.
The U.S. is stepping up efforts to boost liquefied natural gas exports to Europe as the Russia-Ukraine war drags on, Jose Fernandez, a senior State Department official, said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing this week. He said he recently met with several European countries that are asking to buy more U.S. LNG.
U.S. export controls on artificial intelligence may not be the right strategy to hinder Chinese progress in certain AI subfields, including machine learning, Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology said in a report this week. While the controls may seem “attractive in the abstract,” the report said most decoupling regimes are “imperfect and frequently act as a hindrance, rather than an absolute bar, to a rival’s technological progress.”
The Commerce Department is prioritizing work to strengthen its export controls and investment restrictions, particularly with allies, Commerce Deputy Secretary Don Graves said, speaking during a July 25 event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He said the U.S. is continuing to rethink the existing multilateral control regimes and believes the global sanctions response to Russia has set a precedent for how democracies could respond to similar aggression by other countries in the future.
The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports again postponed by a week a new surcharge meant to incentivize the movement of dwelling containers (see 2110280031), the two ports announced July 22. The ports had planned to begin imposing the fee in November 2021 but have postponed it each week since. The latest extension delays the effective date until July 29.
India has substantially increased imports of Russian crude oil in the last few months and could start buying even more, said Reid l’Anson, a commodity economist with Kpler, during a July 22 webinar hosted by the Atlantic Council. India is on pace this month to buy 1 million Russian barrels per day, a significant surge from pre-invasion levels, l’Anson said.
The U.S. should shift away from only using export controls as a technology competition strategy against China and instead turn to domestic investment, Ling Chen, a Wilson Center China fellow, said in a July report funded by the think tank. “Weaponizing” supply chains will only “galvanize” China, the report said, causing it to “accelerate” its technological development. “The effect of the tech war may be counterproductive for the United States,” the report said.
Although the U.S. should be concerned about university espionage and research theft, it shouldn’t place restrictions on fundamental research, said Arati Prabhakar, President Joe Biden’s nominee for director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, speaking during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing this week. She said the U.S. has some “real issues” involving research security, which “have to be wrestled with” but not in a way that stifles innovation and hurts American competitiveness.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls posted its two new open general licenses on its website and issued a fact sheet to describe the new pilot program (see 2207190008). Open General License No. 1 and Open General License No. 2 will be valid for one year -- Aug. 1 through July 31, 2023 -- as DDTC tests the “viability and appropriateness of the open general license concept.”
The Senate is making progress on bipartisan legislation that would give the administration stronger authorities to investigate, prosecute and seize the assets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs, including in cases of sanctions or export control evasion. The proposals received broad support this week from Senate Judiciary Committee members, who said DOJ’s powers should be expanded and bolstered to better punish Russian war crimes.