After much anticipation, on November 5, 2026, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS“) released a final rule formally extending the suspension of the “Affiliates Rule” through January 10, 2027. This final rule is due to be published in the Federal Register on November 9, 2026.
The Affiliates Rule, originally issued as an interim final rule effective September 29, 2025, automatically extends Entity List, Military End-User List, and certain sanctions-based licensing requirements under the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR“) to foreign entities owned 50% or more, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, by one or more such listed parties. Our previous blog post on the introduction of the Affiliates Rule is available here.
As we previously reported, as part of the US-China “Busan Agreement” trade truce reached in October 2025, BIS subsequently issued a final rule effective November 10, 2025 suspending the Affiliates Rule for one year. The Affiliates Rule was set to come back into effect on November 10, 2026. More recently in September 2026, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the United States and China had agreed to extend the trade truce through January 10, 2027. This announcement did not explicitly reference the Affiliates Rule leading to some confusion. The new final rule confirms and formally extends the suspension of the Affiliates Rule’s amendments to 15 CFR Parts 732, 734, 736, 744, and 748 until January 10, 2027, but does not otherwise modify the Affiliates Rule or act on the public comments received on it, which BIS states will be considered in future rulemakings. The Affiliates Rule therefore remains suspended rather than withdrawn, and companies should continue to prepare ownership-based screening and due diligence procedures ahead of potential reinstatement in January 2027 absent a further extension. We will continue to monitor and provide updates on any further developments regarding the Affiliates Rule.
The authors acknowledge the assistance of Alexander Cleveland with the preparation of this blog post.
