Sergey Nechaev, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen, was arrested December 2 in the Southern District of Georgia on charges related to the unlawful attempted export of two small aircraft to Russia. In conjunction with the arrest, the U.S. government also seized the aircraft.
A 41 year-old Chinese national with an an expired student visa has been arrested and charged with exporting firearms, ammunition and other military items to North Korea. Shenghua Wen was arrested December 3rd in Ontario, California.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today announced a $14,550,000 settlement with a German firm involved in smuggling a plastics plant from Austraiia to Iran. The out of pocket penalty for the violator is $250,000 to be paid within three months, with 27 quarterly payments of $150,000 thereafter. assuming the violator complies with the settlement and remains in business for the next seven years.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed a rule to rein in data brokers that sell Americans' sensitive personal and financial information. The December 3rd proposal would make clear that when data brokers sell certain sensitive consumer information they are "consumer reporting agencies" under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), requiring them to comply with accuracy requirements, provide consumers access to their information, and maintain safeguards against misuse. “By selling our most sensitive personal data without our knowledge or consent, data brokers can profit by enabling scamming, stalking, and spying,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “The CFPB’s proposed rule will curtail these practices that threaten our personal safety and undermine America’s national security.” Companies that sell data about income or financial tier, credit history, credit score, or debt payments would be considered consumer reporting agencies required to comply with the FCRA, regardless of how the information is used.
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a nationwide injunction Tuesday to enjoin the United States Government from enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act and its Implementing Regulations.
A Chinese-owned producer and distributor of aluminum extrusions in the Dominican Republic has been determined to be employing convict, forced or indentured labor by US Customs and Border Protection. This comes on the heels of a successful appeal by Kingtom Aluminio SRL, of an Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) case before the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT), where an alleger asserted Kingtom Aluminio was evading antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China.
Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced a package of rules designed to further impair China’s capability to produce advanced-node semiconductors that can be used in the next generation of advanced weapon systems and in artificial intelligence and advanced computing. In response, the Chinese government imposed further restrictions on the export of "dual use" commodities banning sales of gallium, germanium, antimony an The controls target some, but not all affiliates of chip manufacturers SMIC and Huawei, as well as semiconductor manufacturing equipment manufacturers in the PRC.
The WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) convened on 25 November 2024 under the chairmanship of Ambassador Saqer Abdullah Almoqbel (Saudi Arabia). Key issues discussed included retaliatory measures, compliance with prior rulings, and ongoing reforms in the WTO’s dispute resolution mechanism. For the 13th time, the US raised its national security justifications for origin marking requirements on imports from Hong Kong-China, reiterating its concerns about the situation in Hong Kong under China’s National Security Law. Hong Kong-China and China criticized the US for politicizing WTO proceedings, calling the allegations unfounded and inappropriate.
The 16th annual Halifax International Security Forum (HFX), held from November 22 to 24, 2024, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, convened global leaders to address pressing security challenges. Referred to by Canadian media as "The Davos of international security," the Forum's agenda encompassed topics such as Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, the influence of China, Iran, and North Korea (collectively referred to as “CRINKs”), Arctic security, and the impact of artificial intelligence on defense.
WTO members agreed to give incumbent Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala a second term as Director-General of the WTO. Her second four-year term, which was approved at a special General Council meeting, will begin on 1 September 2025. DG Okonjo-Iweala took office as Director-General in March 2021 and is the first African and the first woman to serve as head of the organization.
French and British authorities launched a joint investigation into suspected bribery and corruption at the aerospace and defense group Thales. Thales, Europe's largest defence technology firm, said the probe by the SFO and France's PNF financial prosecutor concerned a contract in Asia and focused on four entities in France and the UK, without giving further details.
On November 26, 2024, the Department extended the temporary modification of the Note to paragraph (h)(1) of USML Category VIII with regard to certain commodities used in the KF-21 aircraft or variants thereof.
House China Hawks wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen following the prison sentencing of 45 pro-freedom activists in Hong Kong last week. Citing deteriorating human rights and financial transactions between Hong Kong, Russia, and North Korea, the lawmakers seek a briefing from Treasury Department officials on potential actions the U.S. will take.
Tadashi Yanai, chairman and president of Fast Retailing, the parent company of Japanese fast fashion giant Uniqlo, said the company does not use Xinjiang cotton. Speaking in Tokyo about the firm's measures to be more transparent about where the materials in its clothes come from and how they are made, Yanai said: "We're not using [cotton from Xinjiang," BBC reported on Thursday. "Actually, it gets too political if I say anymore so let's stop here,"
The proposed Day One abrogation of the US - Mexico - Canada Free Trade agreement gave Washington something to talk about over the Thanksgiving dinner table, while cooler heads focussed on football and another slice of that pie, please. Mr. Trump signaled that he wants to slap a 25% tariff on all Canadian and Mexican imports, and a further 10% tariff on everything that comes in from China. “This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” he punctuated.
A Florida Man was sentenced to 48 months in prison for conspiring to act as an agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) without notification to the Attorney General. Ping Li, 59, admitted that, from at least as early as 2012, he served as a cooperative contact working at the direction of officers of the MSS to obtain information of interest to the PRC government.
The head of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) President signed two memoranda of understanding with the governments of Barbados and Saint Kitts and Nevis, securing a total of "up to $800 million in potential financing to support financing in cybersecurity, renewable energy, and critical areas for the region’s long-term growth and sustainability," according to a Bank announcement The announced sum represents a thirty-five fold increase from the amount of business EXIM has done with the two countries over the past 35 years. No specific projects have been identified.
The founder and former chief executive officer of a California-based international logistics and freight forwarding company with offices in Grapevine, Texas, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate export laws by shipping goods to Chinese companies on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Entity List.
With Howard Lutnick as Secretary of Commerce, and Jamieson Greer as USTR, the game of Where’s Lighthizer continues. Few Washington insiders expect the President-elect to throw the chief architect of his trade policy under the bus, in favor of younger, richer, more telegenic acolytes, but stranger things have happened.
Concerns persist over the surge in Chinese exports of used cooking oil (UCO) to the United States, with allegations suggesting the oil may be blended with virgin oils, such as palm oil or soybean oil, from third countries., The surge in imports has been driven in part by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which incentivizes low-carbon fuels but does not require domestic sourcing of feedstocks. This has allowed Chinese UCO imports, which now make up over half of all U.S. UCO imports—up from less than 1% in 2022—to dominate the market.