Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., reintroduced a bill Feb. 25 that would add the agriculture secretary to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to review agricultural transactions. The Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act was referred to the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services, Foreign Affairs and Energy and Commerce committees. The full House passed the bill in September, in the previous Congress (see 2409110045).
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., and Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., reintroduced a bill Feb. 25 that would prevent Chinese Communist Party agents or businesses from buying real estate next to U.S. federal land. The No American Land for Communist China Act was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The lawmakers had introduced the legislation last year, in the previous Congress (see 2408020055 and 2406120055).
The U.S. will have to consider "all available measures, including sanctions," if Thailand moves ahead with plans to forcibly deport 48 Uyghur refugees to China, the leaders of the House Select Committee on China said in a joint statement Feb. 26.
The U.K. removed one entry from its Russia sanctions list on Feb. 26, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said in a notice. Francois Mauron, a Swiss national, was removed after originally being sanctioned for working as a director for an entity conducting business in the Russian energy sector.
Australia this week issued another round of Russia-related sanctions, following similar moves by the EU, the U.K. and Canada to mark three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
President Donald Trump on Feb. 26 said he is reversing certain sanctions relief provided to Venezuela by the Biden administration as part of an “oil transaction agreement” signed in November 2022. That date was when the Office of Foreign Assets Control granted U.S. oil company Chevron a general license to resume certain oil activities in Venezuela, which was intended to support the newly restarted negotiations between Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s regime and the country’s opposition party (see 2211280042).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned six companies based in mainland China and Hong Kong that have helped to supply drone parts to sanctioned Iranian firms. OFAC said the companies “facilitate the purchase and shipment of key unmanned aerial vehicle components to Pishtazan Kavosh Gostar Boshra, sanctioned in 2019, and its subsidiary Narin Sepehr Mobin Isatis, which supply Iran’s UAV and ballistic missile programs.
The U.K. has seen a steady uptick in the number of new criminal investigations on sanctions and export control violations over the last three years, with most having a Russia connection, the country’s trade enforcement agency said. The agency during that time has worked to strengthen its “capabilities for detecting and responding to sanctions breaches,” including by hiring 40 more criminal investigators and devoting more funding toward gathering “intelligence” on industry’s sanctions compliance efforts.
A new task force that the House Foreign Affairs Committee created to improve how the government handles foreign military sales and export controls has begun its work, committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., said Feb. 25.
Corey Hinderstein, a former senior U.S. nuclear nonproliferation official, has joined the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to oversee the think tank’s programs on technology, international affairs, nuclear policy and more. Hinderstein previously served as acting deputy principal administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration and deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation, where she led nuclear-related arms control monitoring and verification efforts. Hinderstein left the government in January.