The U.K. updated its trade sanctions license this week to clarify certain situations wherein its Department for Business and Trade won’t issue an import license. The guidance said traders must apply for an import license before the goods are transported to the U.K., and the government won’t grant a license if an application is made for goods already at the U.K. border. It also won’t issue a license if the goods are “otherwise held in storage in the U.K. prior to making a customs declaration,” the guidance said. “It is a criminal offence to import sanctioned goods without the necessary” license.
President Donald Trump is poised to roll back enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act until Attorney General Pam Bondi can issue new enforcement guidelines, Bloomberg reported Feb. 10. Trump is expected to sign an executive order halting FCPA enforcement until all current and past actions are reviewed and the guidelines are issued. A fact sheet being drafted by the administration says "U.S. companies are harmed by FCPA overenforcement because they are prohibited from engaging in practices common among international competitors, creating an uneven playing field," according to the report.
The State Department approved two possible military sales to Israel, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said last week. One sale includes $660 million of “AGM-114 Hellfire Missiles” and related equipment, and the principal contractor will be Lockheed Martin. Another sale is for $6.75 billion worth of various munitions, guidance kits, fuzes, “munitions support” and related equipment. The sale will include items from U.S. inventory and principal contractors Boeing, ATK Tactical Systems Company, L3Harris Fuzing and Ordnance Systems, and McAlester Army Ammunition Plant.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles last week to discuss the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) agreement, under which the countries share defense technology. Hegseth said President Donald Trump is “very familiar with the agreement and equally supportive of it,” according to a Pentagon press release published after the meeting. Hegseth added that “this is not a mission in the Indo-Pacific that America can undertake by itself. It has to [include] robust allies and partners. Technology sharing and subs are a huge part of it."
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., criticized the State Department Feb. 7 for moving ahead with possible arms sales to Israel while he was still reviewing the potential transactions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control updated its license application portal with new functionality for people and organizations applying for sanctions licenses, the agency announced this week. The portal now allows users to create an account, which will let them save and return to an application in progress, view a list of their applications and case statuses in a single dashboard, save frequently used contacts for “easier data entry,” replicate a previous application, and more. Users who register for an account will need to enter a sign-in email and create a password, OFAC said.
The first few weeks of the new Trump administration have shown that there appears to be a “fair amount of continuity” from the Biden administration on certain China trade policies, including around export controls and outbound investment restrictions, a former Biden National Security Council official said.
William Poplawski, former deputy communications director for the House Select Committee on China, has joined the State Department as a senior adviser, he announced on LinkedIn.
Molly Miller, a former chief of the Office of Foreign Assets Control's enforcement division, has joined Bank of America as its managing director for global economic sanctions, Miller announced on LinkedIn. She most recently worked for Capital One after leaving OFAC in 2015.
A new vessel sharing agreement between Japanese carrier Ocean Network Express, South Korea-based Hyundai Merchant Marine and Taiwan-based Yang Ming Marine Transportation (see 2411070005) will take effect Feb. 9, the Federal Maritime Commission said Feb. 6 after completing its review. The commission said it carried out an “economic analysis of the competitive effects of the” arrangement, called the Premier Alliance Agreement, adding that all agreements “are subject to the strictest standards for ongoing monitoring by the Commission.”