The Commerce Department is working with a police agency in rural Texas to help investigate illegally exported goods, an unorthodox relationship that has sparked concern among industry lawyers and led to disputed seizures.
Peter Kucik, a former senior sanctions policy adviser at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, has joined public strategy firm Mercury as managing director of its Washington, D.C., office, the firm announced in a June 9 email. At OFAC, Kucik helped establish and implement new regulatory systems for different OFAC programs, including for executive orders, license authorizations and international sanctions.
Russia imposed a travel ban on nine Canadian citizens for their roles in placing sanctions on Russia for its arrest of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a June 7 news release. Canada's sanctions are unlawful and have "contributed to the deterioration of our bilateral relations," the release said.
A law designed to counteract foreign sanctions has been submitted to China's legislature for a second reading, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported June 7. The draft was submitted to China's top legislative body, the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress. The law would strengthen China's “legal toolkit with focus on moves against sanctions and interference and countering long-arm jurisdiction to cope with challenges and risks,” the report said. It said the law responds to an uptick in Western sanctions used as “part of their pretexts to spread rumors on and smear, contain and suppress China.” China recently issued regulations for its unreliable entity list (see 2009210017) and an export control regime (see 2010190033). Former U.S. officials say more trade restrictions laws are likely on the way (see 2012170041)
The State Department again extended a temporary measure to allow employees involved in certain International Traffic in Arms Regulations-related activity to work remotely, the agency said June 9. The measure was first imposed in April 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2004240017) and was renewed in December after proving popular with industry (see 2012100009). The latest extension, effective June 10, will allow companies to continue using the remote ITAR exemption until the State Department can finalize a rule proposed in May that would make the change permanent (see 2105260008). Comments on that proposed rule are due July 26.
Two senators asked the Treasury Department for an “immediate briefing” on steps the agency is taking to identify foreign banks doing business with sanctioned Chinese officials under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act. Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., in their June 8 letter, also requested a briefing on Treasury efforts to target those banks through “evidentiary sanctions packages that can withstand scrutiny” in U.S. courts. In its latest report to Congress, required under the HKAA, Treasury said it hasn’t found evidence of any foreign banks facilitating “significant transactions” for the sanctioned officials (see 2105180032).
The U.S. extended the national emergency authorizing sanctions against Belarus for one year beyond June 16, 2021, the White House said June 8. It said Belarusian government actions “continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and foreign policy.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four people for supporting Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s regime as it undermines democracy and violates human rights, the agency said June 9. The sanctions target Camila Antonia Ortega Murillo, the coordinator of the Creative Economy Commission and daughter of Ortega; Leonardo Ovidio Reyes Ramirez, president of the Central Bank of Nicaragua; National Assembly Deputy Edwin Ramon Castro Rivera; and Julio Modesto Rodriguez Balladares, a brigadier general in the Nicaraguan Army and executive director of the Military Social Welfare Institute. OFAC Director Andrea Gacki said the agency will “continue to expose those officials who continue to ignore the will of its citizens.”
President Joe Biden issued a June 8 executive order expanding sanctions authorities against people involved in human rights abuses or threatening the security of the Western Balkans. The order “expands the designation criteria” to authorize sanctions against corruption in the region and “other actions that obstruct key institutions and international agreements,” a fact sheet said. The Treasury Department will issue the sanctions in consultation with the State Department, the order said, and will allow the U.S. to target a broader range of actors that threaten the “peace, security, stability, or territorial integrity” of the Western Balkans. In a letter to Congress, the White House said the order specifically “broadens the geographic scope of the existing sanctions regime” to cover Albania.
Dan Ikenson, who spent decades in trade policy at the libertarian Cato Institute, said he defended China's behavior for years after it joined the World Trade Organization. "I was in favor of welcoming China into the trading system," he said. But now, Ikenson said during a June 9 webinar hosted by the R Street Institute, he has come to see that China's last 15 years of state-directed capitalism produced enormous externalities. He said some of those externalities include the rise of populism, the political rejection of free trade, and even, in part, the presidency of Donald Trump.