The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is extending the comment period for its November 19, 2018, advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM), “Review of Controls for Certain Emerging Technologies” until January 10, 2019. In response to requests received from members of the public, BIS believes it is appropriate to extend the comment period to provide interested parties additional time to submit their responses to the ANPRM. See our previous blog post here.
US trade sanctions and export controls targeting Iran have attracted increasing attention from Chinese companies doing business in Iran or with Iran counterparties. This client alert aims to provide a high-level overview on US trade sanctions and export controls targeting Iran, their implications (particularly in terms of their extraterritorial application), and the potential penalties that can be imposed on companies and their executives and employees in the event of violations.
On November 19, 2018, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) published a long-awaited advance notice of proposed rulemaking (“ANPRM”) seeking public comment on criteria for identifying “emerging technologies” that are essential to US national security with a view to imposing export controls on such largely uncontrolled technologies. This process is being undertaken pursuant to Section 1758 of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (“ECRA”), which mandates the establishment of a regular multi-agency process for identifying appropriate controls on emerging and foundational technologies that are “essential to the national security of the United States” and that are currently subject to no or very limited controls under other existing US export control regimes. (BIS also announced that it will issue a separate ANPRM in the future regarding the identification of foundational technologies that may be important to US national security.)
On August 24, 2018, the US State Department gave notice of new sanctions on Russia under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 (the “CBW Act”) after determining that the Russian Government has used chemical weapons in violation of international law or chemical or biological weapons against its own nationals. The imposition of CBW Act sanctions follows reports of the use of a “Novichok” nerve agent in an attempt to assassinate UK citizen Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal. There is no indication in the notice regarding the potential for significant additional sanctions (e.g., an export ban, an import ban, an air transportation ban) to be imposed in three months time, as previously described here.