The U.S. extended national emergencies authorizing sanctions against Hong Kong and transnational criminal organizations, the White House said July 7. The White House said actions taken by Beijing to “fundamentally undermine” Hong Kong’s autonomy and activities by transnational criminal groups continue to “pose an unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and foreign policy. The emergencies were renewed for one year, from July 14 and July 24, 2021, respectively.
China’s recently passed foreign sanctions law gives it broad discretion to penalize companies for obeying U.S. and other countries' restrictions against China, although it remains unclear how China will use the new tools and what specific activities will be targeted, law firms said. Even so, businesses operating in China should closely review the new law, which passed the National People’s Congress in June (see 2106150030) and closely mirrors U.S. regulations. “It creates a menu of countersanctions available to Chinese authorities” that are “taken straight from the U.S. sanctions playbook,” Morrison & Foerster said in a June 30 post.
The Washington lobbying firm that represents a Chinese surveillance company recently hired a former U.S. sanctions officer to advise it on U.S. sanctions weeks after the Chinese company was added to a U.S. blacklist, Axios reported July 7. The firm, Mercury Public Affairs, which lobbies on behalf of Hikvision, last month hired Peter Kucik as managing director of its D.C. office, it said in a press release. Kucik was formerly a senior sanctions policy adviser at the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Hikvision was designated a Chinese military company and added to an investment ban list last year (see 2011130026). Hikvision declined to comment, and Mercury didn’t comment.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a July 6 reminder to industry to file annual reports on blocked property by Sept. 30. The notice applies to blocked property held as of June 30. It includes a link to the blocked property report spreadsheet and guidance on filing the reports.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls significantly increased its end-user checks from 2019 to 2020, partially because the agency was able to dedicate more resources to its Blue Lantern program after it transferred certain gun export controls to the Commerce Department last year. In its annual Blue Lantern report released July 6 -- which details the agency’s end-use monitoring efforts on controlled defense articles and services -- DDTC said it initiated checks on 272 export licenses or applications during the 2020 fiscal year, an increase of more than 45% from 2019.
North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway aligned themselves with the European Union's further sanctions on Belarus, the European Council announced in a July 6 news release. The council expanded its Belarus sanctions regime June 21 to include 78 individuals and seven entities.
The Biden administration is “nearly’ complete with its ongoing sanctions review and expects to put the results out “near the end of the summer,” The Wall Street Journal reported July 5. The review is part of a broader administration effort to move toward multilateral, calibrated measures instead of sweeping, unilateral pressure campaigns, the report said. The White House didn’t comment.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control officially released its Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Directive July 7, outlining restrictions against the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. The directive, issued by OFAC in April (see 2104150019), was part of a broad sanctions package to penalize Russian human rights violations, corruption and election interference activities.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for June 28 - July 2 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Although the new administration has made domestic policy and combating the COVID-19 pandemic a priority for President Joe Biden’s first year in office, officials are beginning to prepare behind the scenes for more trade engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, said Kurt Campbell, the White House coordinator for the Indo-Pacific. But Campbell also said traders shouldn’t expect much action on that front this year.