The Office of Foreign Assets Control’s amendments to its reporting, procedures and penalties regulations are unclear and too broad, the Association of University Export Control Officers and The Clearing House Association said in July 22 comments, joining a series of trade associations that have been critical of the regulations' amendments.
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.
As the U.S. and the European Union continue to impose diverging sanctions measures, global businesses are being tasked with increasingly challenging compliance dilemmas, several trade experts said during a July 25 KPMG webinar. Companies are facing more strategic decisions about which countries they can and cannot afford to trade with and are reconsidering multiyear contracts because of the constantly changing sanctions landscape, the experts said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control’s amendments to its reporting, procedures and penalties regulations are unnecessary, unclear and “overly burdensome” on the U.S. forwarding industry, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in comments to the agency. The comments stem from OFAC’s June 21 interim final rule on the regulations’ amendments, which expands the scope of certain transactions that must be reported to the Treasury (see 1906200036). The American Association of Exporters and Importers also criticized the amendments, saying they have caused U.S. companies a “great deal of confusion” (see 1907230054).
If the United Kingdom leaves the European Union on a “hard Brexit,” the U.K. will likely make use of more flexible licensing powers, publish more sanctions guidance and may quickly impose its own set of sanctions on human rights violations, said Maya Lester, a U.K.-based sanctions lawyer, during a KPMG webinar on July 25.
The Commerce Department plans to issue decisions on Huawei-related export license applications “within the next few weeks,” Secretary Wilbur Ross said July 23 on Bloomberg Television. Ross said Commerce has received about 50 applications from 35 companies. “We’re processing them as quickly as we responsibly can,” he said.
CBP is working with several African countries to improve their ports and customs agencies and to increase trade with the U.S., said Tasha Reid Hippolyte, director of CBP’s Africa, Middle East and Central Asia Division, speaking during the agency’s Trade Symposium in Chicago on July 24.
CHICAGO -- CBP has partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development to improve customs agencies in the Northern Triangle countries of Central America, hoping improvements will lead to more trade within the region and with the U.S., CBP’s Assistant Commissioner for the Office of International Affairs Ian Saunders said, speaking at the agency’s Trade Symposium in Chicago on July 23.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control’s amendments to its reporting, procedures and penalties regulations has caused a “great deal of confusion” among U.S. companies, the American Association of Exporters and Importers said in July 22 comments to the agency. AAEI said several of the updates are unclear, including OFAC’s new reporting requirements for rejected transactions and the update that expands the scope of transactions that must be reported.
The supply chain security executive order issued in May is directly related to Huawei, Akin Gump lawyers said, and will likely restrict Huawei from selling certain items if those items impact U.S. national security. The executive order (see 1905160072) requires the Commerce Department to issue regulations within 150 days (that is, by Oct. 14) and bars "transactions involving information and communications technology [ICT] or services" without a broad interagency review.
Commerce plans to eliminate license exceptions for civil end-users from the Export Administration Regulations, according to an alert from Akin Gump. Commerce did not say when the changes would take effect, the alert said, but U.S. companies should “prepare for the possibility that currently exempted activities may soon require specific licenses” from the Bureau of Industry and Security. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs recently completed a review of the changes, according to a notice on the OIRA website.