Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 recent

The Bureau of Industry and Security amended the Export Administration Regulations by adding 34 entities under 43 entries to the Entity List, effective July 12, 2021. The largest cluster — 14 Chinese entities — comprises suppliers of surveillance infrastructure enabling the Chinese government's human-rights abuses in Xinjiang, including video analytics firms, network equipment makers, and geolocation platforms deployed in the Uyghur Region. Six Russian individuals and entities were added for participation in military procurement networks acquiring US-origin electronics and components in violation of the EAR. Additional listings cover Iran sanctions evaders (Canada, Lebanon), a UAE-based nuclear-proliferation facilitator, and one entity elevated from the Unverified List to the Entity List under China. All items subject to the EAR require a BIS licence to export, re-export, or transfer in-country to the listed parties, with a presumption-of-denial review policy.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a final rule (FR Doc. 2021-12751; 86 FR 31909) removing Satori Corporation from the Entity List under the destinations of France and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The entity had been added on 22 December 2020. The End-User Review Committee (ERC) made its removal decision based on a request submitted by or on behalf of Satori Corporation and its review of information provided pursuant to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) §744.16. No specific activity is identified in the public notice. Effective 15 June 2021.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to formally recognise the United Arab Emirates' termination of participation in the Arab League Boycott of Israel, effective retroactively to 16 August 2020 — the date of UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 4 of 2020. The rule removes UAE from the EAR's list of countries requiring cooperation with an international boycott (Supplement No. 1 to Part 760), meaning requests from UAE entities will no longer be presumed boycott-related under Part 760 antiboycott provisions. The BIS action follows parallel de-listing by the Department of the Treasury (April 2021) and the Department of State's certification to Congress (April 2021), completing the US regulatory alignment with the Abraham Accords normalisation of UAE-Israel relations.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added eight entities to the Entity List — six based in Pakistan and two in the UAE — on grounds that they were acting contrary to US national security or foreign policy interests through involvement in proliferation to unsafeguarded nuclear activities. All EAR items destined for these entities require a license with a presumption of denial; no license exceptions are available. Separately, one China-based entity (Molecular Devices Shanghai Corporation) was removed from the Military End-User (MEU) List, and a second China MEU entry was renamed (Hutchison Optel Telecom Technology → Chongqing Optel Telecom Technology Co., Ltd.).

On 22 March 2021, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched Operation 300bn at Qasr Al Watan in Abu Dhabi — a 10-year national industrial strategy delivered by the newly created Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT, established July 2020). The strategy targets raising the industrial sector's annual GDP contribution from AED 133bn (~USD 36bn) to AED 300bn (~USD 82bn) by 2031, lifting R&D spend from AED 21bn to AED 57bn (1.3% → 2% of GDP), and supporting more than 13,500 industrial SMEs through an AED 30bn (~USD 8.2bn) Emirates Development Bank (EDB) financing portfolio. Eleven priority sub-sectors are organised into three baskets: Stimulating Growth (food/beverage, pharmaceuticals, electrical equipment), Advanced Manufacturing (petrochemicals, rubber/plastics, machinery), and Industries of the Future (hydrogen, medical technology, space technology).