U.S. Adds 17 to Commerce’s Entity List | Kharon The Kharon Brief

U.S. Adds 17 to Commerce’s Entity List

The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) will add a Russian research institute, four Chinese companies, a Hong Kong firm and nearly a dozen others to its Entity List, blocking them from receiving U.S. exports.

The additions, announced ahead of their publication in the Federal Register, came as a result of a vote by an interagency group called the End-User Review Committee (ERC), which decided that there was reasonable cause to believe that each entity was involved, or poses a significant risk of becoming involved, in activities contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interests.

Among the new entries to the BIS Entity List is JSC Kaluga Scientific Research Institute of Radio Engineering (KNIRTI), which the Commerce Department said is a majority-owned subsidiary of JSC Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies (KRET)

KRET was sanctioned in July 2014 by the U.S. Treasury Department for operating in the Russian arms sector; it designs and produces electronic warfare equipment, including weapons-control systems, friend-or-foe identification systems, avionics and more.

The Commerce Department also added four Chinese entities  China General Nuclear Power Group, China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC), China Nuclear Power Technology Research Institute Co. Ltd. and Suzhou Nuclear Power Research Institute Co. Ltd. because each engaged in, or enabled, efforts to acquire advanced U.S. nuclear technology and material for diversion to military uses in China. 

Corad Technology Limited, based in Hong Kong, was also added to the Entity List because it was involved in the sale of U.S. technology to Iran’s military and space programs, to North Korean front companies, and to subordinate entities of China’s government and defense industry, the Commerce Department said.

Markel Closed Joint Stock Company (Markel CJSC) and Yerevan Telecommunications Research Institute Closed Joint Stock Company (YETRI CJSC), both of which are based in Armenia, were added to the Entity List because YETRI CJSC obtained export-controlled items without required licenses, the Commerce Department said. The person who is the executive director of YETRI CJSC and the president of Markel CJSC has engaged in a business relationship with a sanctioned Iranian organization, it added.

Others added to the Entity List included five companies and two individuals the Commerce Department said had attempted to procure and divert export-controlled aluminum tubing via Malaysia to Iran, as well as a United Arab Emirates-based company for transshipping U.S.-origin items to sanctioned destinations without authorizations. 

Separately, BIS issued orders today denying export privileges to three people who were convicted in 2018 in unrelated cases of export-controls violations.