The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week updated and added to its Syria-related restrictions under several sanctions regimes, including restrictions related to “foreign sanctions evaders.” The agency also added various definitions and a new general license, along with updating other licenses, including changes to a license that authorizes certain legal services.
Ian Cohen
Ian Cohen, Deputy Managing Editor, is a reporter with Export Compliance Daily and its sister publications International Trade Today and Trade Law Daily, where he covers export controls, sanctions and international trade issues. He previously worked as a local government reporter in South Florida. Ian graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Florida in 2017 and lives in Washington, D.C. He joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2019.
A top Treasury Department official this week called on U.S. companies and banks to bolster their trade compliance efforts, saying they need to do more to prevent their customers and counterparties from buying and shipping sensitive items for Russia’s military.
The Bureau of Industry and Security reached a $44,750 settlement with Airbus DS Government Solutions, a Texas-based satellite communications company, after BIS said the firm violated the Export Administration Regulations’ antiboycott provisions. The agency said Airbus DS-GS failed to report a boycott request to the U.S. government and certified to another business that its products didn’t come from Israel.
A new rule that would impose a three-day deadline for certain responses to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. was unanimously criticized by several law firms, an industry group and the Chinese government, which said such a time frame doesn’t take into account the complex, time-consuming discussions companies must have when dealing with CFIUS. Some commenters also asked the committee to nix a proposed change that would raise the maximum penalty for violations from $250,000 per violation to $5 million, saying most violations are accidental, and the increase could rattle the “confidence” of foreign investors.
China will place export controls starting June 1 on various military and dual-use equipment, software and technology, including items used in the aerospace and shipbuilding industries, along with “ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibers,” the country’s commerce Ministry said May 30, according to an unofficial translation.
EU foreign ministers and officials this week called on the bloc to better control exports of dual-use technologies, adding that they want European nations to coordinate more closely on new restrictions and hold regular meetings to discuss “key export control policy issues.” They also want the bloc to work on a new law that would allow member states to formally adopt controls agreed to at the Wassenaar Arrangement, even if they’re blocked by Russia.
The U.S. and other countries imposing sanctions and export controls on Russia need a more “aggressive” plan to cripple Moscow’s war effort, a group of researchers and economists said, including through tighter financial restrictions, new bans on Russian commodities and broader export controls. They also said American lawyers should have to follow strict due diligence and reporting rules when taking on clients with ties to Russia, and said the price cap on Russian oil should be lowered.
The State Department should expand a carve-out in the U.S. Munitions List to make it easier for U.S. companies to export spacecraft that refuel other ships in space, said Orbit Fab, a company that develops in-space refueling systems. Orbit Fab said the existing exemption may be outdated, and an update could better support “U.S. and allied nations efforts in space.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control revised its Cuba sanctions this week to loosen restrictions on a range of activities and transactions, including for certain financial and internet services. Some changes will allow certain Cuban nationals to open and remotely use U.S. bank accounts and will authorize certain Cuba-related remittances and payments that were restricted by the Trump administration.
The Council of the European Union last week officially adopted new EU-wide supply chain due diligence rules that will require certain companies to conduct specific due diligence on their supply chains, including to root out forced labor.