The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has announced a partially closed meeting of the Transportation and Related Equipment Technical Advisory Committee (TRANSTAC) scheduled for May 21, 2025, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET, in Washington, D.C.
David Peters has been nominated to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement, plugging one of the largest remaining gaps in the org chart at the Bureau of Industry and Security. Peters, most recently a Trial Attorney in the Fraud Section, Market Integrity and Major Frauds of the Justice Department takes the reins from Matt Axelrod, now with Gibson Dunn in Washington.
In contrast to the Treasury Department's flurry of staffing announcements, the Commerce Department quietly updated its website this week, detailing the staff incoming BIS Chief Jeffrey Kessler will rely on to ensure trade security. The appointment of James Rokas as Mr. Kessler's principal deputy has been thrown into doubt, as Chief of Staff Robert Burkett has replaced Mr. Rokas as acting undersecretary.
Trump’s Tariff Man at Commerce, Howard Lutnick, is making no bones about the fact that he is a fan of President Trump’s idea of across-the-board tariffs on all countries. At a hearing on his nomination before the Senate Commerce Committee last week, several senator expressed a preference for targeted tariffs. But the nominee for Commerce Secretary, said across-the-board tariffs are the way to get “reciprocity, respect and fairness” from other countries. The 25 percent tariff hike that President Trump says he plans to impose on Canada and Mexico on February 1 is not really a tariff “per se,” Mr. Lutnick said, but rather it’s about “creating action.”
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul sent a letter to Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez expressing his frustration regarding the Bureau of Industry and Security’s (BIS) "overall aversion to enforcing export controls against China’s semiconductor industry, including Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC)." "It is irreconcilable that only SMIC’s most advanced production line (SMIC South) has a presumption of denial licensing policy, whereas the rest of its corporate network faces little to no restrictions."
The Transportation and Related Equipment Technical Advisory Committee will meet on November 13, 2024, 9:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, in the Herbert C. Hoover Building, Room 3884, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC The open session will be accessible via teleconference. To join the conference, submit inquiries to Ms. Patricia Muldonian at PatriciaMuldonian@bis.doc.gov.
The US Commercial service will be conducting a series of Export Compliance workshops in the coming months, visiting Tampa, Charlotte, Connecticut, Phoenix and Salt Lake City.
The Materials and Equipment Technical Advisory Committee will meet on November 7, 2024, 10:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, in the Herbert C. Hoover Building, The Open session will include presentations by Livingston International and the Hydraulic Institute Valve Association
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee held their quarterly meeting Tuesday, with a wary eye towards the year end and potential for a change of regime.
BIS Wedensday published Federal Register notices soliciting comments on Cuban Agricultural trade licensing processes. The Bureau also updated a table associated with with License Exceptions and made additions and deletions to the Unverified List.
The Emerging Technology Technical Advisory Committee (ETTAC) will meet on October 21, 2024, and The Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee (Committee) will meet on Tuesday, October 29, 2024
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published guidance for financial institutions containing best practice recommendations for complying with the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The guidance focuses on General Prohibition 10 (GP 10), which prohibits financial institutions (and other persons) from financing or otherwise servicing any item subject to the EAR with knowledge that a violation of EAR has occurred, is about to occur, or is intended to occur.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published guidance for financial institutions containing best practice recommendations for complying with the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The guidance focuses on General Prohibition 10 (GP 10), which prohibits financial institutions (and other persons) from financing or otherwise servicing any item subject to the EAR with knowledge that a violation of EAR has occurred, is about to occur, or is intended to occur.
The Commerce Department proposed prohibiting the sale or import of connected vehicles integrating specific pieces of hardware and software, or those components sold separately, with a sufficient nexus to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or Russia. Published by the Bureau of Industry and Security, the rule focuses on hardware and software integrated into the Vehicle Connectivity System (VCS) and software integrated into the Automated Driving System (ADS). These are the critical systems that, through specific hardware and software, allow for external connectivity and autonomous driving capabilities in connected vehicles.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a final rule making changes to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) related to BIS’s policies and practices regarding voluntary self-disclosures (VSDs) and to the BIS Penalty Guidelines. The rule revises the BIS Penalty Guidelines to change how the Office of Export Enforcement (OEE) calculates the base penalty in administrative cases and how OEE applies various factors to the base penalty to determine the final penalty.
BIS released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking outlining a new mandatory reporting requirement for the world’s leading AI developers and cloud providers. The proposed rule requires developers of the most powerful AI models and computing clusters to provide detailed reporting to the federal government. This includes reporting about developmental activities, cybersecurity measures, and outcomes from red-teaming efforts, which involve testing for dangerous capabilities like the ability to assist in cyberattacks or lower the barriers to entry for non-experts to develop chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons.
The Transportation and Related Equipment Technical Advisory Committee will meet on September 18, 2024, 9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m., eastern daylight time, in the Herbert C. Hoover Building, Room 1412, 1401 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D. C.
The Materials and Equipment Technical Advisory Committee will meet on September 12, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, in the Herbert C. Hoover Building, Room 3884, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC
BIS invites comment on the following proposed and continuing information collections: Chemical Weapons Convention Provisions, two rarely used short supply activities, and Section 232 Surveys designed to gather information so that BIS can evaluate the impact of foreign imports of strategic commodities on the national security of the United States.
Registration is open for three BIS seminars in Massachusetts and California ■ Complying with U.S. Export Controls ■ Encryption Controls
