A top Treasury Department official this week called on U.S. companies and banks to bolster their trade compliance efforts, saying they need to do more to prevent their customers and counterparties from buying and shipping sensitive items for Russia’s military.

The Bureau of Industry and Security reached a $44,750 settlement with Airbus DS Government Solutions, a Texas-based satellite communications company, after BIS said the firm violated the Export Administration Regulations’ antiboycott provisions. The agency said Airbus DS-GS failed to report a boycott request to the U.S. government and certified to another business that its products didn’t come from Israel.

The State Department’s proposed rule exempting Australia and the U.K. from International Traffic in Arms Regulations under the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) security partnership is too restrictive and should be revised to remove barriers to defense trade among the three countries, the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) told the agency last week.

All 12 Republicans on the House Select Committee on China, including Chairman John Moolenaar of Michigan, urged the Treasury Department May 31 to investigate whether six Chinese companies should be sanctioned for helping Iran’s military and energy sectors evade U.S. sanctions.

A new rule that would impose a three-day deadline for certain responses to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. was unanimously criticized by several law firms, an industry group and the Chinese government, which said such a time frame doesn’t take into account the complex, time-consuming discussions companies must have when dealing with CFIUS. Some commenters also asked the committee to nix a proposed change that would raise the maximum penalty for violations from $250,000 per violation to $5 million, saying most violations are accidental, and the increase could rattle the “confidence” of foreign investors.

EU foreign ministers and officials this week called on the bloc to better control exports of dual-use technologies, adding that they want European nations to coordinate more closely on new restrictions and hold regular meetings to discuss “key export control policy issues.” They also want the bloc to work on a new law that would allow member states to formally adopt controls agreed to at the Wassenaar Arrangement, even if they’re blocked by Russia.

The U.S. and other countries imposing sanctions and export controls on Russia need a more “aggressive” plan to cripple Moscow’s war effort, a group of researchers and economists said, including through tighter financial restrictions, new bans on Russian commodities and broader export controls. They also said American lawyers should have to follow strict due diligence and reporting rules when taking on clients with ties to Russia, and said the price cap on Russian oil should be lowered.

The U.S. plans to continue fine-tuning its export controls and sanctions against Russia in response to Moscow's attempts to get around them, a Biden administration official said this week.

The State Department should expand a carve-out in the U.S. Munitions List to make it easier for U.S. companies to export spacecraft that refuel other ships in space, said Orbit Fab, a company that develops in-space refueling systems. Orbit Fab said the existing exemption may be outdated, and an update could better support “U.S. and allied nations efforts in space.”

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