Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and member Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, introduced a bill Feb. 3 that would sanction foreign entities that facilitate illegal immigration into the U.S., including human smuggling networks and financial institutions that enable their operations.
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., has urged newly installed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to follow through on his pledge to increase sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine.
The Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze will hamstring efforts by international organizations such as Conflict Armament Research (CAR) to detect sales of American technology to foreign "adversaries," including Iran, North Korea and Russia, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Feb. 4.
President Donald Trump on Feb. 4 signed a memorandum that would restore the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran he instituted during his first administration, including possibly through new sanctions.
The Trump administration should build on a January move by President Joe Biden that was designed to ease how the government authorizes transfers of missile technology-related exports to close allies, said Sean Wilson, a non-resident aerospace policy researcher with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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The U.K. should mirror the enforcement practices of U.S. agencies by publicizing the details of sanctions and export control penalties, which would help British companies better comply with trade restrictions, industry officials and a researcher told U.K. lawmakers this week. The U.K. should sharply raise penalties on businesses that violate sanctions to convince industry to invest more heavily in trade compliance, the researcher said.
Paul Rosen, former assistant secretary for investment security at the Treasury Department, has joined Latham & Watkins as a partner in the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and national security practice, the firm announced. At Treasury, Rosen oversaw CFIUS and its investment screening and enforcement activities.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Panamanian officials Feb. 2 that President Donald Trump has made a preliminary determination that China’s influence and control over the Panama Canal area threatens the waterway and violates the 1977 agreement that transferred U.S. control of the canal to Panama, according to State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce.
The EU-Chile Interim Trade Agreement entered into force following Chile's ratification of the deal, the European Commission announced last week. It said the deal will boost bilateral trade and investment between the two partners by eliminating tariffs on 99.9% of EU exports, ensuring "more effective and sustainable flow of raw materials," and including an "Energy and Raw Materials chapter" that will give the EU access to "critical raw materials such as lithium, copper as well as clean fuel like hydrogen." The agreement will be supplemented by "ongoing initiatives," such as the "development of critical raw materials value chains for lithium and copper, and the Production of Green Hydrogen in Chile," the commission said.