The U.S. has little room to expand sanctions against Hamas, but it could look to track down and designate additional front companies the terror group uses to fund its activities, said Jason Prince, former chief counsel at the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Although OFAC has general licenses in place to authorize a broad range of humanitarian-related transactions involving Palestine, Hamas’ designation as a foreign terrorist organization could make some financial institutions less willing to approve those aid-related transactions, Prince said.

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls should publish guidance and take other steps to help expedite approvals for marketing demonstrations and other “pre-delivery activities” that occur before a foreign military sale, industry officials told the agency during its Defense Trade Advisory Group plenary last week. Officials also gave a host of other recommendations aimed at addressing issues plaguing the FMS program, including fixes that could help other agencies understand when a license isn’t required.

The Bureau of Industry and Security this week will officially extend authorizations for South Korean semiconductor companies Samsung and SK Hynix to allow them to continue supplying certain controlled chip equipment to their Chinese factories. The move -- which formalizes authorizations that have applied to both companies since the agency issued its China chip rule Oct. 7, 2022 -- underscores the importance of the Korean chip industry to global semiconductor supply, BIS officials said.

The Treasury Department this week sanctioned two ship owners in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, along with their two vessels, for transporting Russian oil sold above the global price cap set by the U.S. and its allies. The agency also issued a new general license authorizing certain transactions with the two sanctioned ship owners and, together with the Group of 7 countries and Australia, published a new price cap guidance and advisory outlining best practices for the maritime oil industry.

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is drafting at least two rules to make “targeted revisions” to the U.S. Munitions List and is preparing to soon propose changes to its registration fees, said Timothy Betts, DDTC’s acting deputy assistant secretary. Betts also said the State Department is looking to hire a DDTC-dedicated attorney adviser and stressed the importance of defense companies having compliance buy-in from upper management.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is amending the Commerce Control List to implement changes agreed to during the 2022 Wassenaar Arrangement plenary, the agency said in an interim final rule released this week. The rule, effective Oct. 18, includes control parameter changes and editorial revisions to more than 50 Export Control Classification Numbers across Categories 1-10 of the CCL. BIS also is seeking public comments on a change that would restrict the use of License Exception STA (Strategic Trade Authorization) for certain countries when exporting technology used to develop certain supersonic aero gas turbine engine components.

The Bureau of Industry and Security this week sent for interagency review a much-anticipated final rule that would make updates and corrections to its Oct. 7, 2022, China chip controls (see 2211010042 and 2210070049). BIS said the rule, sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Oct. 10, will make “additional changes in response to the comments received” on the Oct. 7 rule, as well as “additional changes identified by BIS that are needed in order to achieve the objectives” of the controls. The Oct. 7 rule introduced new license requirements for a range of semiconductor related exports and activities involving China.

DOJ is now regularly asking companies about their compensation clawback policies, including in investigations into corporate violations of sanctions or export controls, said Jamie Schafer, a trade lawyer with Perkins Coie. She said companies should have a plan for how they will use compensation clawbacks if they need to submit a voluntary disclosure, which could help them mitigate potential penalties.

The Biden administration needs to soon update its China-related chip export controls and apply “full blocking sanctions” to Huawei and China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., top House Republicans recently said in a letter to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Those measures and others will address what the lawmakers said has been a ”failure” by the administration and the Bureau of Industry and Security to properly enforce the Oct. 7 chip restrictions, which placed new license requirements on a host of chip-related exports and activities involving China.

DOJ is looking to apply its recently revamped corporate enforcement principles “across the entire Department,” including in cases involving the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said during an event last week held by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics. Monaco said companies “should expect more to come on this topic” as DOJ extends its policies “beyond the criminal context to other enforcement resolutions -- from breaches of affirmative civil case settlements to violations of CFIUS mitigation agreements or orders.”