A lack of export control harmonization and an uneven playing field across the European Union are increasingly hurting Europe’s semiconductor industry, said Aude Jalabert, a trade compliance manager for Infineon Technologies and a member of the European Semiconductor Industry Association. The export licensing and control regimes across EU member states are mainly marred by inconsistencies, language barriers and a lack of staffing, Jalabert said.

The European Union plans to finish rolling out its electronic licensing regime for dual-use exports by 2021, said Gabriela Stoica, a lead analyst of digital trade policy at the European Commission. The regime is being tested by four member states -- Latvia, Italy, Romania and Greece -- and the commission plans to add Belgium as a pilot tester soon, Stoica said. In the program’s next step, the commission plans to launch an e-licensing platform for steel and aluminum imports under the EU’s prior surveillance licensing regime. Stoica said those e-licenses will be “fully live with all member states” by Dec. 31.

U.S. companies and exporters have not told the Trump administration that sanctions on Venezuela are hurting their business, according to Elliott Abrams, the State Department’s special representative for Venezuela. As the U.S. continues one of its most active sanctions regimes (see 1911190028) against a country it says is marred by corruption and human rights abuses, companies are becoming more understanding of U.S. foreign policy goals, Abrams said.

The U.S. sanctions bill against Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline may not have the chilling effect that lawmakers expect, trade experts said. The U.S. should introduce export controls to bolster the sanctions, the experts said, but those restrictions may be too late because the Russia-Germany pipeline is nearing completion. The bill also may disproportionately sanction German businesses involved in the project instead of the real target, they said, which is Russia.

The power of U.S. sanctions has been “severely weakened” by the Trump administration's failure to follow through on lifting designations and is hampered by a lack of transparency, according to a Dec. 16 report from the Center for a New American Security. The administration can take several steps to maximize the effectiveness of its sanctions regimes, the report said, which will also indirectly “limit the unintentional escalation of international competition.”

The U.S. pork industry expects phase one of the U.S.-China trade deal to be a boon to pork exporters, although the industry has not been told exactly how much they will benefit, the National Pork Producers Council said. “The administration hasn't been sharing the details,” Nick Giordano, the NPPC’s vice president of global government affairs, said during a Dec. 18 call with reporters. “But our understanding is that it’s going to be very good for us.”

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is expected to increase enforcement of its 50 percent rule, placing more of a burden on companies to determine whether they are indirectly dealing with a sanctioned party, said Joshua Shrager, a former Treasury official and a senior specialist with Kharon, a sanctions advisory firm. While the 50 percent rule -- which bans transactions with a company owned 50 percent or more by a sanctioned party -- is growing increasingly complicated due to a rise in U.S. sanctions, OFAC’s compliance expectations are rising too, Shrager said.

The Commerce Department plans to release its first set of proposed controls on emerging technologies in six areas, including the semiconductor and artificial intelligence sectors, a top Commerce official said. The six proposed rules (see 1912130055), which may not be released until early next year, include restrictions on items in the fields of quantum technology, semiconductor design, chemicals, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and possibly 3D printing, said Matt Borman, Commerce’s deputy assistant secretary for export administration. The controls stem from an advance notice of proposed rulemaking published more than a year ago.

A Texas aviation consultant violated U.S. terrorism sanctions when it entered into a contract with Mahan Air, Iran’s sanctioned airline, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a Dec. 12 notice. The company, Aero Sky Aircraft Maintenance, was issued a finding of violation by OFAC after it violated U.S. Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations in 2016 for “dealing in the property and interests in property” of Mahan Air, the notice said. Aero Sky eventually filed for bankruptcy and dissolved, Treasury said. OFAC released details of the violations because they would have “justified a strong civil monetary penalty.”

BOSTON -- If the Commerce Department follows through on plans to expand the limits of the Export Administration Regulations to further control foreign shipments to Huawei, it will have a “dramatic” impact on international supply chains, said Kevin Wolf, a trade lawyer with Akin Gump and Commerce’s former assistant secretary for export administration. The measures, which Commerce confirmed it was considering earlier this month (see 1912100033), include expanding the Direct Product Rule and broadening the de minimis rule to make more foreign-made goods subject to the EAR.