The U.K. on May 28 corrected seven entries on its Russia sanctions regime, including one person and six entities. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation corrected the listing for Igor Bystrov, deputy director of MT-Systems and owner of Semirtek DOO, and six Russian and Chinese defense companies. The companies are Atoma LLC, MT-Systems, Pioneer Trade, Shanghai New Chess Co., Shanghai New Chess International Logistics Co. and LLC Responsibility "Market Special Depository."

New FAQs issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control on May 28 provide more guidance on U.S. sanctions relief for Syria (see 2505230073), including what types of transactions are authorized, what Syria-related sanctions the U.S. is still enforcing and more. The FAQs stress that U.S. banks can process transactions by, to and through the Central Bank of Syria and that the sanctions relief doesn't remove any existing authorizations for humanitarian aid.

Although the Trump administration relaxed a range of sanctions against Syria last week, existing export controls still present risks for people and companies carrying out transactions with the country, law firms said this week.

Although adopting a 50% rule for the Entity List could allow U.S. export controls to capture more bad actors, it could also cause unintended business consequences and may make it more challenging for the Bureau of Industry and Security to add companies to the list, said Matthew Axelrod, the agency’s former export enforcement chief.

The Democratic leaders of two key House committees said this week they’re “deeply concerned” about the Bureau of Industry and Security potentially pivoting away from traditional export control dialogues with allies and asked BIS to respond to oversight questions before the end of next week.

Megan Barnhill, a former partner at Bryan Cave, has joined ArentFox Schiff as a partner in the international trade and investment practice, the firm announced. ArentFox said Barnhill focuses on issues involving trade, export controls, sanctions and reporting obligations under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

World Trade Organization members on May 27 elected chairpersons for the 14 subsidiary bodies under the Council for Trade in Goods, the WTO announced. They are:

The Council of the European Union on May 27 adopted a "general approach" to negotiate with the European Parliament on a measure that would exempt most importers from the new carbon border tax rules (see 2505230008). The proposal also would simplify the carbon border adjustment mechanism rules for importers, the council said, including by simplifying "the authorisation procedure, the data collection processes, the calculation of embedded emissions, the emission verification rules, the calculation of the authorised CBAM declarants’ (parties wishing to import goods subject to the CBAM) financial liability during the year of imports into the EU, and the claim by authorised CBAM declarants for carbon prices paid in third countries." The council next will begin negotiations with Parliament.

Members of the EU Parliament's Committee on International Trade are in Washington this week to discuss political, trade and investment relations between the U.S. and the EU. The delegation, led by committee Chair Bernd Lange of Germany, will hold meetings May 27-29 with various U.S. agencies, lawmakers, business groups, trade union representatives, think tanks and academia. They will specifically talk about "how the tariffs imposed by the US administration are being applied, how business is adapting to the tariffs and how can EU-US trade tensions be eased moving forward," Parliament said.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, applauded the Trump administration's decision last week to lift sanctions on Syria and urged the U.S. to help advance democracy in the country. "This is a positive step that will help Syria build a stable future," she said. "As we continue to lift restrictions, it is critical that we also increase our engagement with the Syrian authorities to help advance long-term stability, democracy and a more secure and prosperous future for the Syrian people and the region.”