Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2662 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The FCC adopted a Report and Order (FCC 25-49) on 7 August 2025 — the first comprehensive overhaul of submarine cable landing license rules since 2001 — effective 26 November 2025. The order prohibits Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) agreements that would give entities from designated foreign adversary countries (China including Hong Kong and Macau, Cuba, Iran, DPRK, Russia, and Venezuela) control over Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE) on US cable landings, and mandates new annual reporting plus certification/disclosure requirements covering ownership, cybersecurity and physical security plans, and FCC Covered List compliance. The order operationalises the FCC's bifurcated policy package: accelerating legitimate commercial cable buildout while hardening national-security review for foreign-adversary-connected infrastructure.

The US Department of Defense published a final rule (DFARS Case 2020-D007) in the Federal Register on 25 August 2022, effective the same day, amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement to implement section 849 of the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act. The rule prohibits DoD's acquisition of tantalum metals and alloys melted or produced in North Korea, China, Russia or Iran, and of any end item manufactured in one of those countries that contains such tantalum.

OFAC amended the Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators Sanctions Regulations (31 CFR Part 544) to add a note explaining that SDN List entries for persons designated for North Korea-related WMD activities will carry a "Secondary sanctions risk:" prefix, alerting counterparties to the elevated secondary-sanctions exposure under applicable authority. In the same rulemaking, OFAC amended the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (31 CFR Part 560) to broaden the general licence for official UN business — extending it to UN Specialized Agencies, Programmes, Funds, and Related Organizations — and to rename "World Bank" to "World Bank Group" throughout. A technical correction was also included. Neither change expands the substantive prohibitions; both are administrative clarifications improving SDN transparency and GL precision.