The European Union is expanding its control over exports of COVID-19 vaccines made in the bloc and is now basing its decision to block exports on “reciprocity” and “proportionality,” the European Commission announced in a March 24 news release. The EC will consider whether the destination country restricts its own exports of vaccines or their components and whether the COVID-19 infection and vaccination rates in the target country are better or worse than the EU's, it said. The EC said it also will consider whether a vaccine export will threaten the EU's inoculation rate. Seventeen countries previously exempt from restrictions are now under export control while 92 low- and middle-income countries remain exempt, it said.
A group of Senate Democrats released text this week of a bill that would sanction the president of Honduras and block certain exports to Honduran police and military groups. The bill, which was introduced in February, would authorize sanctions on Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez for corruption and human rights violations and potentially designate him as a narcotics trafficker. It would also block U.S. agencies from issuing export licenses for shipments to Honduras’ police or military for certain control defense items and services. The export restrictions would apply to goods controlled under the Arms Export Control Act, including tear gas, pepper spray, water cannons, handcuffs, tasers, certain firearms and other crowd-control items. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced the bill with co-sponsors Patrick Leahy, Vermont; Dick Durbin, Illinois; Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts; Bernie Sanders, Vermont; Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island; and Chris Van Hollen, Maryland.
Two Senate Democrats this week joined a growing chorus of lawmakers (see 2102170013 and 2008110016) to urge the Joe Biden administration to increase sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project and prevent it from being completed. Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said they appreciated measures taken so far (see 2101190018) but urged the administration to continue to use “all the tools available to stop the pipeline’s construction” and to continue “using diplomacy” to build European opposition to the project. “This pipeline must be stopped and your leadership is required towards that end,” the senators said in a March 23 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “[P]ublicly available information suggests that further sanctions are warranted at this time.”
The United Nations Security Council revised eight entries on its ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qaida sanctions list, it said March 23. The changes amend identifying information for terrorist financiers and terrorism group members.
U.S. measures to expand foreign investment screening are having an increasingly chilling impact on Chinese companies’ willingness to invest in the U.S., said Jingyuan Shi, a media and technology lawyer with Simmons & Simmons. As the Biden administration continues to implement its China strategy, including its administration of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., some Chinese technology companies “are adopting a wait-and-see attitude,” especially amid the U.S.-China “trade tension atmosphere,” Shi said during a March 24 webinar hosted by the law firm.
The European Union could remove exceptions to its COVID-19 vaccine export regime, expanding the controls to the rest of the globe, Bloomberg reported a senior EU official as saying. The current EU vaccine export control regime, put in place on Feb. 1, has many large exceptions, including Africa and the Middle East, to make sure that vaccine supply lines are uninterrupted and many poorer countries can receive the shots. However, until orders can be filled that the EU made with vaccine manufacturers, the country exceptions are on the chopping block as are protections to companies such as Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. until they fulfill their contracts, the report said.
A 55-year-old man has been extradited to the U.S. from Malaysia, making him the first North Korean national to be brought to the states to face a criminal charge, the Department of Justice announced in a March 22 news release. Mun Chol Myong, a North Korean businessman, is charged with laundering money through the U.S. financial system to provide luxury items to North Korea. Mun allegedly defrauded U.S. banks for years and violated sanctions on the oppressive North Korean regime in amounts exceeding $1.5 million, according to recently unsealed court documents. He also was allegedly affiliated with the Reconnaissance Geneal Bureau, North Korea's chief intelligence organization. He made his first appearance March 22 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where he had been indicted May 2, 2019, on six counts of money laundering. Mun was arrested in Malaysia May 14, 2019.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill that would impose sanctions on Russian government officials responsible for human rights abuses against their own people. The bill, which was introduced in the House in February and the text released this week, would require President Joe Biden to impose Magnitsky human rights sanctions against Russia for the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the use of other biological weapons. The administration earlier this month sanctioned a host of Russian officials and agencies for Navalny’s poisoning and imprisonment (see 2103020067). The bill also calls for the State Department to “urge” Germany to “withdraw its support” from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project (see 2103180047). The legislation was introduced by Reps. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., Joe Wilson, R-S.C., Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and David Cicilline, D-R.I.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation published an updated list of all the individuals or entities subject to an asset freeze in the U.K. The sanctions regimes include individuals and entities from 21 countries, and for seven non-state reasons including cybercrimes and relationship to ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qaida.
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