More foreign investors are opting to submit a filing with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. out of an abundance of caution, even when there is no mandatory filing requirement, George Grammas, a trade lawyer with Squire Patton, said. Grammas said “sophisticated” investors are especially likely to file before the investment is complete, particularly as CFIUS continues a trend of reviewing years-old investments.
Pakistan recently issued a directive to require online payments for customs duties that exceed about $6,200, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Jan. 27. Importers must make the payment through one of Pakistan’s bank‑sanctioned payment systems via e‑payments and “any other electronic payment method” approved by the country’s state bank. HKTDC said the move is aimed at further digitizing customs payments to meet the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental organization created to combat money laundering.
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued orders temporarily denying export privileges for three people involved in illegal exports. Irma Lizette Trevizo was convicted April 30, 2019, of conspiring to smuggle firearms and ammunition from the U.S. to Mexico, BIS said in a Jan. 25 order. Trevizo was sentenced to two years in prison, two years of supervised release and a $100 fine. BIS denied Trevizo’s export privileges for 10 years from the date of her conviction.
Economics Professor Mary Lovely, who studies multinationals' operations in China, told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that the trade war didn't make the U.S. less reliant on China, and that export controls designed to isolate China have not been effective, either. She noted that China is still the top exporter to the U.S., and their goods make up 17% of U.S. imports. The Commission met online Jan. 28.
The U.S.’s decision to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal and rescind Iranian sanctions would be complex and time-consuming, likely taking months of bureaucratic work and negotiations, sanctions and Iran experts said. The new President Joe Biden administration has a range of Iranian-related sanctions issues to tackle before rejoining the agreement, the experts said, such as which Iranian entities and officials to de-list, whether to endorse Europe’s INSTEX and how to address humanitarian exports to Iran.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control extended a general license authorizing certain transactions involving securities of companies that “closely” match the name of a company identified as a Chinese military company (see 2011130026), a Jan. 27 notice said. General License No. 1A, which replaced General License No. 1 (see 2101120026), authorizes the transactions through 9:30 a.m. EDT May 27 and past the original expiration date of Jan. 28. OFAC also added language to the license to specify that it does not authorize transactions with securities of entities listed on OFAC’s Non-Specially Designated Nationals Communist Chinese Military Companies List or Defense Department-issued lists (see 2101150006). The agency updated frequently asked questions 878 and 879 to reflect the change.
As the European Union's vaccination effort lags behind other developed nations', the bloc threatens to implement export controls on vaccines made inside the EU to increase the number of doses available for its citizens. “In the future, all companies producing vaccines against COVID-19 in the EU will have to provide early notification whenever they want to export vaccines to third countries,” European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides said in a news release Jan. 25.
The Bureau of Industry and Security fined a California business owner $540,000 and suspended his export privileges after he allegedly caused false information to be submitted on controlled exports to Russia, BIS said Jan. 27. The agency said Julian Demurjian, who owned CIS Project, violated the Export Administration Regulations when he provided false values for exports of telecommunication equipment controlled for national security, encryption and anti-terrorism reasons.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, President Joe Biden’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said she would support sanctions against China and will lead an effort to stop the country from taking over international standards-setting bodies. She said she also will take aggressive measures to counter China’s growing role at the United Nations and its human rights violations. “I see that as my highest priority,” she told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jan. 27 during confirmation proceedings.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control updated its sanctions list search tool to include “fuzzy logic that is more resource efficient,” a Jan. 25 notice said. The changes will improve the performance and responsiveness of the search tool, OFAC said. Users “may see differences between search results from the previous version of the tool and the newer version.”