The Bureau of Industry and Security approved $23 billion worth of prospective exports involving Chinese companies on the Entity List from January through March 2022, representing about 79% of all license applications it received for those companies during that time period. The data, recently released by House Foreign Relations Committee Chair Michael McCaul, R-Texas, shows an “unacceptable” amount of approvals, the lawmaker said.

DOJ last week announced “significant changes” to how it assesses corporate compliance programs’ approach to communications platforms, which could impact whether the agency offers to resolve an investigation without criminal charges. Under the revised policies, companies that claim to not have access to emails and other electronic information related to a DOJ probe may have to prove to the agency that they can’t access those messages, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite said.

Russia is using the United Arab Emirates as a major transhipment hub to import controlled goods, a Treasury Department official said last week. UAE companies exported more than $18 million worth of goods to sanctioned Russian entities between July and November, said Elizabeth Rosenberg, assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes. They also exported more than $5 million worth of U.S.-origin and export controlled goods to Russia June to November. Those items included “semiconductor devices” used by Russia to fight its war in Ukraine.

The Bureau of Industry and Security will increase the number of penalties it issues against corporations for export violations this year, an effort it hopes will lead to improved industry compliance, the top export BIS enforcement official said last week. DOJ also will concentrate more resources on targeting export violators, a top agency official said, and plans to significantly expand its Export Control Section.

Western democracies should pursue new restrictions on technology researchers or risk further falling behind China in global technological competition, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute said in a report that it released this week. The institute warned that China’s dominant research position could allow that country to “gain a stranglehold on the global supply of certain critical technologies.”

U.S. enforcement agencies this week issued their first joint “compliance note” to warn industry about common Russian sanctions evasion efforts. The note -- from the Commerce, Treasury and Justice departments -- outlines methods Russia uses to circumvent trade restrictions, including through intermediaries or transshipment points, and describes a range of red flags businesses should monitor.

The Bureau of Industry and Security this week added 37 entities to the Entity List for a range of activities the agency said threaten U.S. national security, including for supporting Russia’s war effort, sending controlled items to China’s military and aiding companies already listed on the Entity List. The entities -- located in Belarus, Myanmar, China, Pakistan, Russia and Taiwan -- will be subject to a license requirement for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations with varying license application review policies. BIS also modified 10 existing Chinese entries on the Entity List. The additions and changes took effect March 2.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined an Indian tobacco manufacturer $332,500 this week for violating U.S. sanctions against North Korea. Mumbai-based Godfrey Phillips India Limited (GPI), which didn’t voluntarily disclose the violations, settled with OFAC after the company used U.S. banks to receive payments for indirect tobacco shipments to North Korea, OFAC said, and used third-party companies to try to hide the payments’ connection to North Korea.

Senators have enough bipartisan support to add the USDA secretary to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and expand CFIUS jurisdiction to cover a broader range of agriculture-related purchases, lawmakers said this week. Several said the committee isn’t doing enough to prevent Chinese government-affiliated companies from purchasing U.S. land and want to expand its reach, particularly after CFIUS determined last year that it didn’t have the jurisdiction to intervene in a Chinese purchase of land near a North Dakota Air Force base.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is considering new export controls on certain machinery or lab equipment used by Chinese suppliers of precursor chemicals, which are used to produce fentanyl. BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez, speaking during a Feb. 28 House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, said the agency is working with the Drug Enforcement Administration “to assess whether we can put restrictions” on those items. “So we're doing that kind of assessment, working both on the enforcement and my export administration side to see what we can do to crack down on that,” he said. Estevez was responding to a question from Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., who asked how the administration is working to “pressure” China to “combat financial flows from illicit fentanyl.”