Switzerland this week sanctioned three people and one entity with ties to the Myanmar military and human rights violations in the country. The designations target Saw Chit Thu, Mote Thun and Tin Win, officials involved with the Karen National Army, an armed group linked to the country’s military. Switzerland also sanctioned Chit Linn Myaing Group, a group of companies controlled by Saw Chit Thu.
The U.S. this week designated 26 companies, people and vessels linked to the sanctioned Al-Qatirji Company, a Syrian conglomerate that OFAC said generates hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and the Yemen-based Houthis by selling Iranian oil to Syria and China.
Companies have not encountered any major hurdles as they seek to comply with the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s new interim final rule extending sanctions-related record-keeping requirements from five years to 10 years, according to two trade lawyers interviewed.
A subsidiary of American insurance firm MetLife will pay $178,421 to settle allegations that it violated U.S. sanctions by maintaining insurance policies for entities controlled by the Iranian government.
The Trump administration would be unwise to expand its export controls to cover older-generation semiconductors destined to China, but it could pursue new restrictions over less advanced versions of the tools used to make certain chips, technology policy analysts said in interviews, particularly if it’s willing to be more aggressive than the Biden administration in talks with the Dutch and Japanese.
Restrictive trade measures from 20 of the world's leading economies "significantly increased" over the past year, the World Trade Organization found in its 31st Trade Monitoring Report. While the Group of 20 countries also imposed 141 trade facilitating measures, the report said that from October 2023 to October 2024, G20 nations imposed 91 new trade-restrictive measures covering around $828.9 billion worth of goods, up from about $246 billion worth of goods in the last report, which covered restrictions imposed from mid-May to mid-October 2023.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said in a statement Nov. 13 that she expects to become the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee in the next Congress, which begins in January.
The U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation this week sanctioned Abdel Rahman Juma Barkalla and Osman Mohamed Hamid Mohamed, two senior officials with the Rapid Support Forces, a militant group in Sudan that has been accused of human rights violations. The designations follow similar sanctions imposed by the U.N. (see 2411120042) and the U.S. (see 2411120006).
The U.K. offered guidance this week about how companies should address a recently announced Russian decree that requires securities held at the country's National Settlement Depository to be transferred to local Russian registrars. The move is an attempt by Russia to evade Western sanctions on its National Settlement Depository, the U.K. said in new FAQ 124, warning British companies that the local Russian registrars may also be captured by sanctions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week issued several new and revised FAQs to provide sanctions guidance to the insurance industry.