Newly confirmed Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo interviewed Chinese technology expert James Mulvenon to head the Bureau of Industry and Security, Reuters reported March 30. It’s unclear whether the interview will lead to a “vetting” for the undersecretary post, the report said, or how many others will be interviewed. A BIS spokesperson declined to comment.
Venezuela was denied a stay of a more than $234 million arbitration award payment to Luxembourg-based steel pipe and tube supplier Tenaris S.A. since the stay would be redundant due to current restrictions on the payment, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in a March 29 decision. Due to current Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions on Venezuela, enforcement of the award cannot be completed until Tenaris receives a license from OFAC or until U.S. sanctions on Venezuela are lifted entirely. Judge Carl Nichols found that with the OFAC restrictions, Venezuela is not required to pay until Tenaris receives the agency's permission, so a stay “does nothing to alter the status quo.” The arbitration payment was awarded to Tenaris by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes for Venezuela's expropriation of Tenaris assets without compensation.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control removed four Venezuela-related entries from its Specially Designated Nationals List, according to a March 31 notice. The agency deleted AMG S.A.S. di Alessandro Bazzoni & C., AMG S.A.S. di Alessandro Bazzoni and C., AMG S.A.S. di Alessandro Bazzoni E C. and Serigraphiclab di Bazzoni Alessandro. OFAC sanctioned the entities in January because they are owned by Alessandro Bazzoni, whom the agency said was involved in a Venezuelan sanctions evasion network (see 2101190017). OFAC didn’t comment.
The State Department will urge the Treasury Department to not renew a Belarus-related general license following the country’s disputed presidential elections last year and its violent crackdown on peaceful protester (see 2012230030), an agency spokesperson said. The general license, which has been renewed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control every year since 2015, authorizes certain transactions with nine Belarusian entities and is scheduled to expire April 26.
The State Department on March 31 issued its annual report to Congress certifying that Hong Kong doesn’t warrant differential treatment from mainland China under U.S. law. The report follows a determination last year by the Trump administration that Beijing’s so-called national security law was infringing upon Hong Kong’s autonomy, which led to a series of U.S.-imposed trade restrictions, sanctions and export controls (see 2005270026, 2012220053 and 2103170027). Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. will continue to work with Congress and allies “to stand with people in Hong Kong against [China’s] egregious policies and actions.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released the 2021 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, detailing foreign market access barriers faced by U.S. exporters. The 574-page report examines 65 U.S. trading partners and country groups, including any import policies, tariffs, customs, procedures and phytosanitary measures that are restricting U.S. goods.
The Philippines is requiring its trade regulatory government agencies to use TradeNet, the country’s online trade processing platform for import and export permits and applications, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council said March 30. The mandate is expected to “slash” processing times and simplify permit procedures, HKTDC said. The requirement now goes beyond agencies that traditionally handle trade, such as government entities that oversee logistics and port operations, the retail sector, freeport zones, and agriculture and food. Agencies that don't comply with the mandate may face “administrative sanctions,” the report said.
China placed retaliatory sanctions on U.S. and Canadian officials for their roles in promoting action against China for its human rights violations in the Xinjiang region against the Uyghur Muslim minority population (see 2103220034), a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced March 27. China levied an asset freeze and travel ban against U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Chair Gayle Manchin, USCIRF Vice Chair Tony Perkins and Canadian Member of Parliament Michael Chong. Sanctions were also placed against Canada's House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. China maintains the U.S. and Canadian sanctions are “based on rumors and disinformation.”
A bipartisan group of former U.S. national security officials asked the Biden administration to support a bill that would establish a State Department office to coordinate export controls, standards setting and other critical technology issues with other democratic nations. The Democracy Technology Partnership Act, introduced in the Senate earlier this month, would help the U.S. better respond to Chinese efforts to dominate global technology sectors and lead in emerging technologies, the former officials said in a March 30 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Russian national Oleg Vladislavovich Nikitin, general director of St. Petersburg, Russia-based energy company KS Engineering, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to conspiracy to skirt export controls, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia announced in a press release. Nikitin, admitted to attempting to sell a power turbine to a Russian company attempting to use it on an Arctic deepwater drilling platform -- a process banned by the Commerce Department without a license. An unnamed Russian government-controlled business contracted with Nikitin to buy the turbine from a U.S. manufacturer for $17.3 million. Nikitin, along with two others, was arrested in Savannah, Georgia, attempting to carry out the transaction for the turbine.