Human Rights

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On March 28, 2023, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to confirm that the foreign policy interest of protecting human rights worldwide is a basis for adding entities to the Entity List. Specifically, this Final Rule amends 15 C.F.R. § 744.11 of the EAR regarding…

On March 14, 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) launched an interactive web page providing forced labor enforcement statistics under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). CBP launched this “UFLPA statistics dashboard” to provide a single source of data on UFLPA enforcement actions. The dashboard provides information on the number of…

On March 2, 2023, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a Final Rule adding 37 entities to the Entity List for contributing to Russia’s military/defense industrial base, supporting China’s military modernization, and facilitating or engaging in human rights abuses in Burma and China, including the following:

  • Three entities in Russia,
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On February 3, 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) issued a determination in the Federal Register providing notice that it has determined that palm oil and various derivatives thereof “are no longer being mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part with the use of convict, forced, or indentured labor by the Sime Darby…

Effective December 16, 2022, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a Final Rule adding 36 Chinse entities to BIS’s Entity List. These additions are intended to further restrict China’s “ability to leverage artificial intelligence, advanced computing, and other powerful, commercially available technologies for military modernization and human rights abuses,” according…

On December 9, 2022, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two Chinese individuals and a vast network fishing vessels they control, including Pingtan Marine Enterprise Ltd. (PME) and Dalian Ocean Fishing Co., Ltd. (Dalian), for perpetrating serious human rights abuses and corruption via illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Although…

During meetings among the G7 leaders on June 28, 2022, President Joseph Biden and the other G7 leaders committed to a “unified approach to confront” China’s trade-distorting industrial directives.  According to a White House Fact Sheet, such actions will include:

  • sharing insights and best practices to identify, monitor and minimize vulnerabilities and logistic bottlenecks

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Key Notes:

  • Effective June 21, 2022, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) establishes a rebuttable presumption that all goods produced, mined or manufactured in the Xinjiang region of China or by certain entities designated to the UFLPA Entity List are produced with forced labor and prohibited from entry into the United States.
  • The prohibition

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Key Notes:

  • Several federal agencies recently released a business advisory emphasizing the heightened risk of doing business in Burma.
  • Four key areas of risk were identified: (1) state-owned enterprises (SOEs); (2) gems and precious metals; (3) real estate and construction projects; and (4) arms, military equipment, and related activities.
  • U.S. businesses with supply chains tied

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