Richard O'Neill was named partner at Neville Peterson, where he was previously an associate attorney, the law firm said in an emailed news release. O'Neill's work is focused on “all aspects of international trade and Customs law, including tariff classification, appraisement, country of origin and trade preference programs, Section 301 and Section 232 tariffs, Free Trade Agreements, export controls and trade remedies,” the firm said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a frequently asked question to address Congress’ inclusion of sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (see 1912190075), according to a Dec. 20 notice. In FAQ 815, OFAC clarified the wind-down provisions in the NDAA, which specify that all parties involved in selling, leasing or providing vessels for Nord Stream 2 or Turkstream must “immediately cease construction-related activity.” But OFAC said it may extend “good-faith wind-down exceptions” to certain parties for the safety of the pipeline, the crews and to avoid environmental damage.
The State Department published an interim final rule that will revise the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to provide definitions for activities that are not exports, re-exports, retransfers or temporary imports, the agency said in a notice in the Federal Register. The activities include launching items into space, providing technical data to U.S. people within the U.S. or “within a single country abroad,” and moving defense items within the U.S.
In the Dec. 19-20 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation corrected an entry under its Venezuela sanctions regime, OFSI said in a Dec. 19 notice. The change amended identifying information for the listing for Tibisay Lucena Ramirez, who is still subject to an asset freeze, OFSI said.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a bill Dec. 18 that would impose “wide-ranging sanctions” on Russian companies and people involved in Ukraine interference, human rights abuses and more, the committee said in a press release. The bill would also sanction Russian banks that support the government’s effort to undermine democracy, sanction investment in Russian liquefied natural gas projects, and impose sanctions on Russia’s cyber sector, sovereign debt, political figures and oligarchs. The bill would also sanction members of Russia’s shipbuilding sector that prohibit free navigation, and designate state-owned energy projects outside of Russia. The bill has strong bipartisan support and next heads to the Senate floor.
The State Department sanctioned Honduran congressman Oscar Ramon Najera due to “significant corruption,” according to a Dec. 20 press release. Najera allegedly benefited from the Honduran drug trafficking organization Los Cachiros, which was designated by the Treasury Department as a foreign narcotics trafficking group in 2013. The State Department also designated Najera’s son Oscar Roberto Najera Lopez.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned five people in Mali for threatening the country’s peace and obstructing humanitarian aid, Treasury said in a Dec. 20 press release. The United Nations Security Council also designated the five people, imposing asset freezes throughout UN member states, according to a Dec. 19 press release.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control renewed a license authorizing certain transactions with COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co. and amended three Iran-related frequently asked questions, OFAC said in a Dec. 19 notice. General License K-1, which replaced General License K, authorizes transactions relating to the maintenance or wind-down of dealings with the COSCO subsidiary until Feb. 4, 2020. The license was previously set to expire Dec. 20.
U.S. companies and exporters have not told the Trump administration that sanctions on Venezuela are hurting their business, according to Elliott Abrams, the State Department’s special representative for Venezuela. As the U.S. continues one of its most active sanctions regimes (see 1911190028) against a country it says is marred by corruption and human rights abuses, companies are becoming more understanding of U.S. foreign policy goals, Abrams said.