Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 10-14 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Department of Justice’s recent changes to its voluntary disclosure policies (see 1912130047) could lead to complications for companies and were met with backlash from other enforcement agencies, said Robert Clifton Burns, an export control lawyer with Crowell & Moring. The guidance, which outlined benefits for companies that disclose export control and sanctions penalties, can be interpreted as saying industry should first submit their voluntary disclosures to the Justice Department instead of to other agencies, Burns said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service issued a report on Aug. 14 about the European Union’s import controls for certain agricultural goods. It details the EU’s “extensive” control regimes for food items, including pre-export check requirements and special conditions for entry.
The United Nations Security Council on Aug. 14 rejected a U.S. resolution to extend the Iranian arms embargo, raising the possibility of the U.S. invoking snapback sanctions under the Iran nuclear deal. Only the U.S. and the Dominican Republic voted in favor. Russia and China voted against; 11 members abstained, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom. All three previously said they would support an extension of the arms embargo (see 2006220020), which is scheduled to expire in October.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four people in Uganda for their involvement in an adoption scam, an Aug. 17 news release said. OFAC said the people visited “vulnerable” families in remote villages and promised to take their children to receive an education but instead offered them for adoption to U.S. visitors. OFAC sanctioned two Ugandan judges, Moses Mukiibi and Wilson Musalu Musene; Ugandan lawyer Dorah Mirembe; and Mirembe’s husband, Patrick Ecobu, for carrying out the scheme. Mirembe and Ecobu allegedly bribed the two judges and other Ugandan officials to carry out the adoptions in Ugandan courts.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Aug. 17 added 38 Huawei affiliates to the Entity List and refined a May amendment to its foreign direct product rule, further restricting Huawei’s access to U.S. technology, the agency said in an Aug. 17 final rule. BIS also modified four existing Huawei entries on the Entity List, amended language in the Export Administration Regulations and said it will continue one cybersecurity-related authorization under its temporary general license for Huawei. The remainder of the license expired Aug. 13.
The White House announced a one-year extension of a national emergency that authorizes U.S. export control regulations, according to an Aug. 13 notice. The move renewed the authority authorized in a 2001 executive order on the continuation of U.S. export controls. The emergency declaration was to expire Aug. 17, 2020.
The U.S. seized its largest-ever shipment of Iranian fuel aboard four tankers illegally shipping oil to Venezuela, according to an Aug. 14 Justice Department press release. The agency said the U.S. seized about 1.116 million barrels of petroleum, part of a multimillion-dollar fuel shipment from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. The U.S. filed the forfeiture warrant July 2 (see 2007060012).
European countries need to increase sanctions against Venezuela to force a regime change and limit Nicolas Maduro’s ability to evade U.S. restrictions, said Carrie Filipetti, the State Department’s assistant secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Filipetti also said more U.S.-European cooperation can help limit the Maduro regime’s access to gold supply chains, which it uses for funding.
Export control experts advocated for more effective U.S. controls, saying the U.S. should pursue more multilateral support and may need to rethink its strategy toward China. In a series of short essays published Aug. 13 by the Center for a New American Security, experts and former policymakers dive into how the controls can be more effective, what they should target, and how the controls are viewed by U.S. allies and adversaries.