The State Department approved a possible $84 million military sale to Romania, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said this week. The sale includes "GBU-39B Small Diameter Bombs" and related equipment. The principal contractor will be Boeing.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas lifted its preliminary injunction against the enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act on Feb. 18, meaning CTA reporting requirements are now "once again back in effect," the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said.
Sens. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Rep. Dale Strong, R-Ala., reintroduced legislation Feb. 18 that would prohibit the sale of U.S. agricultural land to “foreign adversaries,” namely China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.
The Senate voted 51-45 along party lines late Feb. 18 to confirm investment firm leader Howard Lutnick as the next commerce secretary. Lutnick has pledged to make strong enforcement of export controls a “hallmark” of his tenure (see 2502050048). President Donald Trump formally nominated Lutnick for the position last month. Commerce official Jeremy Pelter had been serving as acting secretary for several weeks (see 2501210030).
The U.S. and other Group of 7 nations should make greater use of the roughly $300 billion in Russian assets frozen in the West, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and three other senators said in a Feb. 18 statement. While the G7 agreed last year to use interest from those Russian assets to finance a $50 billion loan to Ukraine (see 2406140056), the senators said the allies should provide more much-needed support to Ukraine by confiscating the frozen assets or using them as collateral for another, larger loan. The Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in April 2024 (see 2404240043), authorizes the U.S. to repurpose its share of the frozen assets.
The U.K. this week amended the entry for Eden Levi under its Global Human Rights sanctions regime to include his national ID number and date of birth. Levi is an Israeli national who was sanctioned for "threatening and perpetrating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian individuals."
EU officials have agreed on a new package of sanctions against Russia, European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said Feb. 19. The measures will include more import and export restrictions, “tighter anti-circumvention measures,” and a “stronger crackdown” on Russia’s shadow fleet -- the ships Moscow uses to transport sanctioned goods. “The EU must remain united against the aggressor,” Dombrovskis said on social media platform X.
The State Department has designated eight Latin America-based criminal groups as Specially Designated Global Terrorists and Foreign Terrorist Organizations, the agency said in a pair of Federal Register notices released this week. The designations, which took effect Feb. 6, target Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha (also known as MS-13), Cartel de Sinaloa, Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, Carteles Unidos, Cartel del Noreste, Cartel del Golfo, and La Nueva Familia Michoacana.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is facing a backlog of export license applications and a barrage of questions from industry after applications were put on hold earlier this month, although the agency hopes to see processing slowly return to normal as political appointees are put in place, Export Compliance Daily has learned.
Emily Benson, who has worked for the Commerce Department since July as a senior adviser for trade and technology policy issues, is leaving the agency to join an advisory firm focused on geopolitics and technology, she announced on LinkedIn. Benson said she plans to continue working on “all things tech and trade, from export controls and AI to investment screening and supply chain dynamics.”