So my firm’s client Mushko Electronics (Pvt) Ltd. (Mushko) was officially removed from the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry & Security’s (BIS) Entity List yesterday.  The change took will be published in the Federal Register on June 30. A copy of the final rule can be found here. I’m posting this here as companies in the MENA region and South Asia may have particular interest, given how many parties in these regions are on various BIS and OFAC lists.

Named to the Entity List in March 2018, Mushko is based in Pakistan and has been a well known name for decades, having been founded in 1948 and having served as Hewlett Packard’s (HP) longest-standing country rep in the world until it was added to the list. The naming resulted in an existential threat to the company’s 70+ year existence. Initially, being on the Entity List prohibited Mushko from selling and transferring virtually all items subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR), including non-sensitive items and those made outside the United States (many foreign-made products also fall under the EAR’s jurisdiction because of their significant U.S.-origin content). This prohibition was narrowed in November 2019 to only dual-use items.

This was our second removal, the first one being Technology Links (Pvt) Ltd., also of Pakistan, whose removal our firm Akrivis Law Group, PLLC secured in late 2019. This followed a period where scores of Pakistani companies were added to the list in 2018.

There are many takeaways here, but one is that many might feel that getting removed from the Entity List is an unsurmountable challenge. While every case has its own facts and circumstances, the examples of Mushko and Technology Links (as well as other companies that get removed) show that this is not necessarily the case.