Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for Oct. 26-30 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
China’s new export control law (see 2010190033 and 2010220024) is expected to significantly impact trade and may include “very broad” catch-all controls, leading to compliance burdens for companies doing business in China, law firms said. Businesses should review their compliance programs to make sure they are prepared for the regulations and to avoid potential Chinese penalties, firms said, which could be severe.
The United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended two entries on its Burundi sanctions list, it said Nov. 2. The revisions update identifying information for government officials Godefroid Bizimana and Gervais Ndirakobuca.
The European Union extended by one year its sanctions regimes for Moldova and Burundi, the EU said Oct. 30. The regimes will be in force until Oct. 31, 2021.
The U.S. renewed a national emergency authorizing sanctions against Sudan despite suggesting that it was considering ending some restrictions, the White House said Nov. 2. “Despite recent positive developments,” the White House said, the crisis in Sudan “has not been resolved” and continues to threaten U.S. security.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a sanctions advisory and guidance on Oct. 30 about the risks associated with dealing in high-value works of art. The guidance outlines which art markets may present sanctions risks and urges galleries, museums, agents, auctioneers and collectors to maintain a compliance program. OFAC also stressed that transactions involving expensive artwork are “not categorically exempt” from the Berman Amendment to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Trading With the Enemy Act. The amendment “generally exempts” imports of art from IEEPA regulations, but OFAC said it does “not interpret this exemption to allow blocked persons or their facilitators to evade sanctions by exchanging financial assets such as cash, gold, or cryptocurrency for high-value artwork or vice versa.” OFAC said it will apply both IEEPA and TWEA sanctions on any art-related dealing involving a blocked person “to the extent the artwork functions primarily as an investment asset or medium of exchange.”
U.S. export controls on foundational technologies would impede U.S. innovation and do little to reduce national security concerns, the Computer and Communications Industry Association said in a letter to the Bureau of Industry and Security. The group urged BIS to construct a “narrowly tailored” export regime or risk stymieing U.S. leadership in a range of technologies.
The Central Bank of Nigeria said it will sanction international shipping and airfreight companies for noncompliance with a 2017 directive related to bills of lading and airway bills, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council said Oct. 27. The directive requires all exports to carry “Nigerian Export Proceeds (NXP) form numbers” on their bills, the report said. Nigeria said it recently completed an audit of shipping companies that showed several businesses were not complying with the order, adding that it will impose “severe sanctions” for continued noncompliance, HKTDC reported. The country also plans to issue guidance to help industry better “verify the authenticity of NXP form numbers submitted.”
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced sanctions and trade restrictions on two people for illegally importing protected wildlife, the agency said Oct. 30. Japan said Shigeyuki Koyama and Mamoru Miyata imported 15 live Australian lungfish from Indonesia without the required licenses, according to an unofficial translation of the notice. The fish are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Japan said the two people are now subject to import bans.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs began a review Oct. 28 of a State Department rule that would amend International Traffic in Arms Regulations requirements for certain countries. The proposed rule would modify the ITAR for Tunisia, Eritrea, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, as well as “other changes.” The agency has mentioned the rule in past regulatory agendas (see 2007200005 and 1911250035).