The House Foreign Affairs Committee this week advanced a bill that could lead to new U.S. sanctions against people and entities involved in illegal fentanyl trade. The Project Precursor Act, introduced by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, would require the State Department to seek to classify illicit fentanyl under the Chemical Weapons Convention and authorize the U.S. to sanction banks, people and transnational criminal organizations “complicit in the trafficking of this chemical weapon,” McCaul said during a May 16 markup. “This is a generational crisis that requires bold action and thinking outside the box. That’s what we’re doing.”
The European Commission this week proposed to reform its customs system, including by creating a single interface called the EU Customs Data Hub that will allow for the submission of all customs information on imports. Under the plan, the EU also would create an EU Customs Authority, which it said would boost cooperation between customs surveillance and law enforcement authorities at the EU and member state level, and would eliminate the de minimis threshold for imports under $162.
Two European Parliament committees last week approved the EU’s proposed law governing artificial intelligence, bringing the bloc closer to implementing first-of-its-kind AI regulations that could include new import restrictions on a range of products. The proposed rules, adopted by the Internal Market and the Civil Liberties committees, are next expected to receive a vote from the full parliament in June before lawmakers begin negotiations with the European Council “on the final form of the law,” Parliament said in a news release.
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The Group of 7 countries likely will discuss sanctions, trade and a host of other issues at the upcoming summit in Japan, but the most consequential topic may surround the group’s emerging “de-risking” policy toward China, experts said this week. Several said they expect the G-7 countries to end the summit by releasing more information on the approach, although they also noted that not all Europeans yet agree with the strategy.
A bill recently passed by a Texas Senate committee could allow the Texas attorney general to submit information about non-notified investment transactions to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., Squire Patton said in a May 12 client alert. SB-2142, passed unanimously by the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs April 25, is the “first of its kind creating a monitoring mechanism at the state level” for foreign direct investments, the firm said.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill last week that could expand sanctions on Syria's Bashar Assad regime and close “loopholes” in existing sanctions. The Assad Anti-Normalization Act would sanction members of Syria’s People’s Assembly and senior officials of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party and would “clarify the applicability” of sanctions to Syrian regime airlines and certain energy-related transactions. It also would expand the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act by “plugging loopholes” that “made it hard to enforce,” including by expanding Caesar Act sanctions on those involved in diverting humanitarian aid meant for the Syrian people.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced a bill last week that could lead to sanctions on any person or entity “endangering” the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The New York lawmaker said Russia has begun forced evacuations of the plant’s employees, leaving it “dangerously understaffed.”
A group of House members asked President Joe Biden to reverse sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela, saying the measures are contributing to historic levels of migration to the U.S. But Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said U.S. sanctions aren’t the root cause of the migration, and the U.S. should find other ways to address the issue.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee could soon consider legislation that would harmonize various U.S. sanctions lists in a bid to help agencies better reach consensus when reviewing export license applications. Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., said the Commerce Department has an outsized vote in adjudicating applications of sensitive exports and should be required to more carefully weigh input from other agencies, including the Defense and State departments.