The Council of the European Union on Sept. 29 extended to Oct. 15, 2026, the individual sanctions regarding the situation in Nicaragua for another year. The sanctions cover 21 individuals and three entities and relate to the crackdown on dissent and the rule of law in Nicaragua.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week renewed a general license that authorizes payments of certain taxes, fees, import duties, licenses, certifications and other similar transactions involving the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation that would normally be blocked under Directive 4 of Executive Order 14024. General License 13O, which replaces 13N, authorizes those transactions through 12:01 a.m. ET Jan. 9., as long as they're “ordinarily incident and necessary to the day-to-day operations in the Russian Federation of such U.S. persons or entities.” The license was scheduled to expire Oct. 9.

The U.N. Security Council on Sept. 28 reimposed all nuclear-related U.N. sanctions and restrictions against Iran that had been paused after the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal. The imposition of those so-called "snapback" sanctions came after France, Germany and the U.K., known as the E3, in August began the process to reimpose U.N. sanctions against Iran after accusing the country of failing to meet safeguards around its nuclear program (see 2508280033).

The Bureau of Industry and Security is rolling back a Biden-era interim final rule that increased restrictions on firearms exports, the agency said in a final rule effective Sept. 30. BIS said it decided that the rule should be “rescinded in its entirety” after hearing from U.S. firearms manufacturers that the controls “would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars per year in lost sales.”

A new interim final rule released by the Bureau of Industry and Security this week introduces a 50% ownership threshold rule for the Entity List and Military End-User List, a change that’s expected to drastically increase the number of companies subject to stringent export licensing restrictions. BIS also is adopting the rule, which it calls the “Affiliates rule,” for export transactions involving certain parties sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which BIS said will “align more closely” OFAC’s 50% rule with the new restrictions under the Export Administration Regulations.

The European Commission on Sept. 26 imposed antidumping duties on hot-rolled flat products of iron, and non-alloy or other-alloy steel from Egypt, Japan and Vietnam. The duties will apply for five years at rates of 11.7% for Egypt, 6.9% to 30% for Japan, and 12.1% for Vietnam. The duties that were provisionally imposed since April 7, 2024, "will not be collected retroactively," the commission said. In the AD investigation, goods from India also were also investigated, but the probe was "terminated without the imposition of duties, because it was not established that Indian imports were dumped."

The EU is again postponing implementation of its new deforestation reporting requirements, proposing a one-year delay because its IT system isn't ready to handle all the transactions for products covered by the regulation, Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall told the European Parliament Sept. 23.

The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation issued a new general license last week that allows the government's revenue and customs agency to make certain payments to the frozen bank account of a person sanctioned under U.K. authorities. The revenue agency also may "set-off" the "amount of any Permitted Payment (as a credit) against any liability of the same UK [sanctioned person] to pay an amount to that Revenue Authority (as a debit)." The license took effect Sept. 26.

The State Department last week approved a possible $1.23 billion military sale to Germany, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said. The sale includes "AIM-120D-3 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles and related equipment," and the principal contractor will be RTX.

House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., said Sept. 26 that he plans to conduct “full oversight” of a new U.S.-China agreement that will transfer ownership and control of TikTok from China’s ByteDance to American investors.