The U.K. and India announced plans last week to officially sign their new free trade deal (see 2505070036), which is expected to reduce tariffs for a range of goods and make it "easier and cheaper" for British companies to buy India's "best products," the U.K. said. The prime minister's office also said India’s average tariff on U.K. products will drop from 15% to 3%, saying whiskey producers will especially benefit from duties being "slashed in half," with further reductions over the next 10 years. The two sides signed a host of side letters under the agreement, and a 13-page document outlines the deal's chapter on customs and trade facilitation.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control deleted a range of entries from its Specially Designated Nationals List last week that were originally sanctioned for their ties to Myanmar or North Korea. The delistings include KT Services & Logistics Company Limited and its CEO, Jonathan Myo Kyaw Thaung, a company OFAC sanctioned in 2022 for being controlled by the Myanmar military; Funsaga Pte Ltd., which also was sanctioned in 2022 for doing business with a North Korean-run animation studio; and Suntac Technologies, which was sanctioned in 2023 for ties to the Myanmar military. OFAC didn't release more information about why it removed those entries.
The U.K. last week released a threat assessment of the sanctions compliance risks involving British "cyptoasset" firms, saying those companies have likely underreported suspected sanctions breaches to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation since August 2022. Although most cases of noncompliance by these companies have occurred "inadvertently due to common issues such as direct and indirect exposures to" sanctioned people, the U.K. said it expects that some of the violations have involved dealings with the sanctioned Russian exchange Garantex. It also said crypto firms are "at risk of being targeted" by North Korean hackers and added that some British crypto firms are likely "facilitating transfers to Iranian cryptoasset firms with suspected links" to sanctioned parties.
The U.S., Australia and the U.K. need to make more items eligible for defense trade exemptions under the AUKUS partnership, an Australian researcher said last week.
Cadence, a California-based electronic design automation firm, will pay more than $140 million in combined civil fines, criminal penalties and forfeitures to resolve allegations that it illegally exported technology to Chinese entities, DOJ and the Bureau of Industry and Security announced July 28. The company pleaded guilty to illegally exporting EDA hardware, software and semiconductor design intellectual property technology to the National University of Defense Technology, a university added to the Commerce Department's Entity List for its ties to the Chinese military, DOJ said.
The Treasury Department is delaying the effective date of new regulations that were set to make investment advisers subject to anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing requirements. The final rule, which was issued in August 2024 and was scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2026, will now take effect Jan. 1, 2028. The rule was meant to close a loophole that the Biden administration said allowed criminal actors to hide money in the U.S. and sanctioned companies to access sensitive technology through investments in American firms (see 2408290024).
Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, the leader of the Ecuadorian drug trafficking group Los Choneros, was extradited from Ecuador to New York this week to face smuggling and drug- and weapons-related charges. Macias Villamar was indicted in April for allegedly helping Los Choneros obtain firearms and weapons by illegally trafficking and exporting them from the U.S., including by hiring people to buy guns in the U.S. and smuggle them to Ecuador 2504020080). DOJ said Ecuadorian authorities “provided substantial assistance to secure the extradition” of Macias Villamar. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 20 years and up to life.
Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; Chris Coons, D-Del.; and John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced a bill July 23 aimed at making it easier for American companies to sell unmanned aircraft to U.S. allies and partners.
House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., has subpoenaed the CEOs of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America for information on their roles in the initial public offering of Chinese electric vehicle battery producer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL), the panel announced July 24. The banks were told to comply by Aug. 8.
A senior State Department official declined to say this week whether the Trump administration is considering withdrawing from the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) security partnership, but she said the administration is generally in favor of the partnership.