The Commerce Department should tighten export restrictions on China’s top chipmaker to prevent it from importing sensitive semiconductor equipment and exploiting a U.S. export control loophole, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas said. The lawmakers, who voiced similar concerns to Commerce last year (see 2103190005), said in a March 17 letter to Commerce that its export control licensing policies for Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation are “ineffective” and are denying less than 1% of export applications to sell technology to the company.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended 21 entries under its Russia sanctions regime, still subjecting them to an asset freeze. OFSI also corrected three entries under the sanctions list and removed duplications for two individuals from the consolidated list. The corrected entries are Mikhail Fridman, Alfa Bank board director; Petr Aven, Alfa Group supervisory board chair; and German Khan, DEA Deutsche Erdoesl AG supervisory board member. The duplicate listings were dropped for Yury Vorobyov, Federation Council of the Russia member; and Maya Bolotova.
The Congressional Research Service published a paper on the legal authority and organizational process behind the design and implementation of sanctions. The paper provides an overview of sanctions and export controls, and discusses the recent package targeting Russia and Belarus.
Australia issued another round of sanctions against Russia March 18, including designations targeting 11 more Russian banks and government entities. The entities include the Russian National Wealth Fund and the Russian Ministry of Finance. The country’s foreign ministry said its sanctions now cover a majority of Russia’s “banking assets,” including “all of the entities that handle Russia’s sovereign debt.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week released a list of commercial and private aircraft that have violated U.S. export controls by flying into Russia and which require a license for “any form of service.” The agency said it will impose penalties, jail time or loss of export privileges for any company or person that violates the Export Administration Regulations by providing “any form of service” to the aircraft without a required BIS license.
The U.S., in combination with Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the European Commission, launched the Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs (REPO) multilateral task force. In a March 16 press release, the Treasury Department said that the members are committed to taking concrete actions, including sanctions, asset freezing, and civil and criminal asset seizure, and criminal prosecution. The task force was first announced during the Joint Statement on Further Restrictive Economic Measures on Feb. 26. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the task force will "galvanize coordinated efforts to freeze and seize assets of these individuals in jurisdictions around the world and deny safe haven for their ill-gotten gains.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a list of about 100 commercial and private aircraft that have violated U.S. export controls by flying into Russia, including planes operated by the country’s main airline operators and one owned by a Russian oligarch. BIS said it will impose penalties, jail time or revoke export privileges for any company or person that violates the Export Administration Regulations by providing “any form of service” to the aircraft without a required BIS license. The list includes planes owned by Russian airlines Aeroflot, AirBridgeCargo and Utair and Russian businessman Roman Abramovich.
As the U.S. continues to tighten Russia export controls (see 2203110056), more companies may ask customers to sign end-use statements as a way to document their due diligence, said Marwa Hassoun, a trade lawyer with ArentFox Schiff. Businesses must also make sure they are taking certain minimum compliance steps to comply with U.S. sanctions, said ArentFox Schiff sanctions lawyer Matthew Tuchband, including more regular screening of restricted party lists.
Republican senators criticized President Joe Biden's choices not to levy sanctions on Russia before last month's invasion of Ukraine, and questioned why the sanctions now aren't tougher, during a press conference March 16 at the Capitol.
A group of countries aligned with the EU's third wave of sanctions on Russia and Belarus following their full-scale assault on Ukraine. On March 9, the European Council added 160 individuals to the list of parties subject to the sanctions. The countries of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Ukraine also imposed that decision, the council said. Those same countries further implemented the council's decisions to restrict the export of maritime navigation goods and technology to Russia, expand the list of legal individuals and entities subject to the ban on investment services and transferable securities, and impose additional sectoral measures against the Belarusian financial sector.