UK Publishes General License for Energy for Mongolia: On August 16, 2022, the UK published General License INT/2022/2085212 for Mongolia energy payments.  The license permits payments to the Credit Bank of Moscow, Gazprombank, Sberbank, Rosbank PJSC, or any entity owned or controlled by these banks, for the purpose of making energy available for use in Mongolia.  The aforementioned banks or subsidiaries can carry out any activity necessary to effect such payments.

UK Amends Two General Licenses: On August 18, 2022, the UK amended two general licenses.  General License INT/2022/2009156 allows UK-designated persons to make certain permitted payments to UK insurers from a frozen bank account, and allows UK insurers to receive the payments.  The general license was amended to further include Terrorism Insurance, Property Owners’ Liability Insurance, and Claims Preparation Insurance, as defined in the license.  General License INT/2022/1710676 permits the continued business operations of Evraz’s North American subsidiaries.  It was set to expire on September 2, 2022, but was extended to March 31, 2023.

U.S., EU, and Others Call for Russian Diamonds to be Labeled “Conflict Diamonds”: According to media reports, the U.S., European Union, Canada, and other Western countries have submitted requests to discuss the invasion of Ukraine and whether Russia’s diamonds should be labeled conflict diamonds.  These requests were sent to the Kimberley Process, an international organization and multilateral trade regime.  Under the Kimberley Certification Scheme, states implement safeguards on shipments of rough diamonds, and certify them as “conflict free.”  The Kimberley Process defines conflict diamonds as “rough diamonds used to finance wars against governments.”  The press reports that, aside from energy, gems are among Russia’s top exports.

New U.S. Export Controls on Four Emerging and Foundational Technologies: The U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) issued an interim final rule that establishes new export controls on four emerging and foundational technologies under Section 1758 of the Export Control Reform Act (“ECRA”) (“Section 1758 technologies”), which are essential to national security.  The technologies support the production of advanced semiconductors and gas turbine engines, and include:

• Two substrates of ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors (Gallium Oxide (Ga2O3) and diamond);

• Electronic Computer-Aided Design (“ECAD”) software specially designed for the development of integrated circuits with Gate-All-Around Field-Effect Transistor (“GAAFET”) structure; and

• Pressure Gain Combustion (“PGC”) technology.

The interim final rule adds the four technologies to the Commerce Control List (“CCL”), supplement no. 1 to part 774, as Section 1758 technologies.  It revises the CCL as well as corresponding parts of the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) to implement controls on these four technologies by revising five Export Control Classification Numbers (“ECCNs”) and adding one new ECCN, as follows:

• Revises ECCNs: 3C001.d–.f, 3C005.a and .b, 3C006, and 3E003 for the two substrates (Ga2O3 and diamond) of ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors; and 9E003.a.2.e for PGC technology.
• New ECCN: 3D006 for Software for ECAD for the development of Integrated Circuits (“ICs”) with GAAFET.

The four technologies are among the items that participating states of the Wassenaar Arrangement agreed to control at the December 2021 Plenary.  BIS will publish the remaining Wassenaar Arrangement controls in a later ruling.