The White House has announced a one-year suspension of the Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security’s (BIS) new Affiliates Rule, but its scope remains unclear. As of November 3, 2025, BIS has not issued a rule or guidance formalizing the suspension. Exporters should continue preparing for compliance while monitoring forthcoming BIS action expected by November 10, 2025.
BIS’s new “Affiliates Rule” marks a major expansion of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), extending export restrictions to entities owned 50% or more by those on the Entity List, MEU List, or certain SDNs—even if not listed themselves. The rule also introduces a new diversion-risk Red Flag, imposes strict-liability exposure, and creates enhanced ownership and due-diligence obligations for exporters and related parties.
Hdeel Abdelhady discussed at ACAMS U.S. export controls on semiconductors and other technology and items to Russia, and U.S. and foreign financial institutions’ compliance obligations.
Although the BIS Guidance is a directive to FIs, it very much affects exporter customers of FIs. Here’s what exporters should know.
The ZTE case illuminates a potentially transformative shift in how the United States deploys its legal and regulatory authority in the international economic arena—a development with profound implications for global commerce, compliance practices, and the rule of law.
BIS advises financial institutions to guard against EAR violations through: (1) screening against export lists, (2) enhanced due diligence for high-risk transactions, (3) derisking, and (4) reporting and self-disclosing EAR violations. The BIS guidance reiterates FIs’ obligation to file suspicious activity reports (SARs) as directed in three prior FinCEN-BIS alerts.
China’s restrictions on rare earths processing technology exports take a page from the U.S. export controls playbook.
MassPoint Principal Hdeel Abdelhady will participate in the American University Law Review Federal Circuit Symposium, as a panelist on international trade and technology.
OFAC issued two general licenses authorizing certain Afghanistan humanitarian aid and activities involving the Taliban or the Haqqani Network. The licenses authorize transactions otherwise prohibited by the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 594 (GTSR); the Foreign Terrorist Organization Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 597 (FTOSR); or, Executive Order 13224 of September 23, 2001, “Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions With Persons Who Commit, Threaten To Commit, or Support Terrorism,” as amended (EO 13224).