The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned five people with links to the Gulf Cartel, which OFAC said is one of Mexico’s “most dangerous criminal organizations.” The designations target Ismael Guerra Salinas and his brother Omar Guerra Salinas, the Gulf Cartel members in charge of the Playa Bagdad region. Other designations target Francisco Javier Sierra Angulo, who leads the Gulf Cartel in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and Raul Decuir Garcia and Ildelfonso Carrillo Sapien, who oversee boats that help the cartel move drugs and migrants into U.S. waters.
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The U.S. government likely needs to change the way it's trying to convince Japan, the Netherlands and other allies to impose export controls on a broader set of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, including by potentially offering them economic incentives and loosening some existing export restrictions, researchers said in a new report this month. The authors also said the Bureau of Industry and Security should survey American chip toolmakers to better understand global chip markets, which can help it maximize the effectiveness of its current export restrictions.
The leaders of the House Select Committee on China said Nov. 25 that they have asked for a briefing on how the Treasury Department is responding to Hong Kong’s growing role in sanctions evasion.
The U.K. added two financial services companies to its Russia sanctions regime on Nov. 25. Alfastrakhovanie and VSK were listed for operating in the Russian financial services sector, which is a "sector of strategic significance to the Government of Russia," OFSI said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is drafting a final rule that would make certain changes to U.S. export controls based on recent decisions made at the multilateral Australia Group. BIS sent the rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Nov. 22.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is renewing a December change to the U.S. Munitions List that allowed U.S. manufacturers to apply for export licenses to participate in development of the KF-21 aircraft “without removing those defense articles from the USML simply because they are used in the KF-21” (see 2312010010). The revision, which was scheduled to expire Dec. 1, will now last through Dec. 1, 2026, or “when terminated by the Department, whichever occurs first,” DDTC said in a final rule released Nov. 25 and effective Nov. 26.
The Bureau of Industry and Security soon will place new export controls over certain scientific testing and industrial processing equipment destined to Pakistan that had not previously faced license requirements, saying the items have been diverted through Pakistan to companies on the Entity List.
China has been “consistently” building a set of policy tools it can use to retaliate against the U.S. and other countries in response to trade controls or other restrictions, and companies could soon start seeing China deploy those tools more frequently, said David Hathaway, a consultant on China issues for The Asia Group.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control will retire its RSS feed Jan. 31 but continue to provide updates about recent sanctions actions by email, the agency announced Nov. 22. OFAC website users can sign up for email updates here. Technical support questions should be sent to O_F_A_C@treasury.gov.