If the Treasury Department doesn't clarify the due-diligence steps that will be required of dealmakers under the agency’s upcoming outbound investment prohibitions, the Biden administration risks chilling a broad range of U.S ventures in China and incentivizing foreign companies to seek funds elsewhere, law firms and industry associations said in comments to the agency.

The Bureau of Industry and Security added 49 entities, mostly from China, to the Entity List for shipping microelectronics to Russian consignees connected to the country’s defense sector. The entities are semiconductor companies, technology businesses, logistics companies and others, and also include companies based in Estonia, Finland, Germany, India, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the U.K.

U.S. allies in Europe and Asia would support new efforts to coordinate on export controls for advanced technologies, including semiconductors, panelists said during an event this week hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But they also said those same countries don’t believe the world needs a new dual-use multilateral export control regime to replace the Wassenaar Arrangement, even though Russia remains a member and can block proposals.

LONDON -- A looming Bureau of Industry and Security rule that would expand the agency’s restrictions on U.S. persons' activities is “going to be a compliance challenge that I don't think we're ready for,” said Robert Monjay, a former BIS analyst and export control executive with Intel.

LONDON -- The Bureau of Industry and Security is increasingly sending out is-informed letters to warn companies that some of their currently unrestricted products need an export license before they can be shipped, said Nancy Fischer, a Pillsbury trade lawyer. Some companies receiving the letters view them as unfair, Fischer said, particularly because BIS doesn’t always send similar letters to their competitors.

The Bureau of Industry and Security dismissed appeals from a Turkish airline and a Russian tour company after both said they were wrongly implicated in a temporary denial order the agency renewed against a separate Russian airline in June.

The EU has received assurances that Beijing will grant export licenses for shipments of gallium and germanium to European businesses despite the restrictions China placed on exports of the two metals in August (see 2307050018), European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said this week. Dombrovskis also said the bloc is looking to sanction additional Chinese firms that may be skirting restrictions against Russia and is hoping to ensure its upcoming supply chain due diligence regulations don’t impose excessive compliance burdens on EU companies.

LONDON -- The Bureau of Industry and Security is noticing a sharp uptick in low-level U.S. microelectronics exports to countries that weren’t involved in semiconductor-related shipments before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, said Liz Abraham, senior adviser for international policy at BIS. She said BIS is looking at creative ways to potentially restrict some of those shipments, even though many of them are designated under the Export Administration Regulations as EAR99 -- items that generally don’t require an export license.

LONDON -- The U.K. is on track to fully deploy the country’s new digital export licensing system in March 2025, said Rosemary Pratt, director of the U.K.’s Export Control Joint Unit. Pratt said the new system, which has faced several delays, has been a “very long running, challenging project,” but it’s now entering the “final phase” and will make export licensing more efficient for U.K. companies.

LONDON -- The State Department hasn’t yet seen much participation in its open general license pilot program despite releasing the licenses more than a year ago, said Catherine Hamilton, the licensing director for the agency’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Hamilton said the licenses specifically aren’t “really being used in the U.K. as we had envisioned.”