Export Controls Archives - MassPoint Legal PLLC

New BIS “Affiliates Rule”: What Exporters Need to Know About Ownership, Due Diligence, and Red Flags

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.

Export Controls

Hdeel Abdelhady discussed export controls at ACAMS

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.

MassPoint Legal and Strategy Advisory PLLC

What Exporters Should Know About Financial Institution Export Compliance

Although the BIS Guidance is a directive to FIs, it very much affects exporter customers of FIs. Here’s what exporters should know.

International Trade

Weaponized Law as a Trade Tool

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.

Export Controls

BIS Guidance to Financial Institutions on Export Administration Regulations Compliance

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.

Critical Resources

China Restricts Rare Earths Exports

China’s restrictions on rare earths processing technology exports take a page from the U.S. export controls playbook.

Emerging Tech Law & Policy

Hdeel Abdelhady to Speak on Tech & Trade at American University Law

MassPoint Principal Hdeel Abdelhady will participate in the American University Law Review Federal Circuit Symposium, as a panelist on international trade and technology.

Sanctions

OFAC Authorizes Humanitarian Aid to Afghanistan

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).

Foreign Investment in the United States

TikTok: China’s Export Controls Set in Motion Unprecedented Legal Scenario

On August 14, President Trump ordered ByteDance to divest its assets and interests in TikTok. What happens if ByteDance does not comply? The question may seem academic, given historical compliance with divestment orders and ByteDance’s talks with U.S. companies about TikTok’s sale. But a recent legal move by China—its expansion of a list of technologies that require government approval for export, including apparently in a sale of TikTok—renders real the issue of non-compliance with the August 14 divestment order, and potentially raises unprecedented issues.

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