A group of European countries not in the EU aligned with two recent sanctions decisions from the European Council, one under the Guinea-Bissau restrictions list and one pertaining to the situation in Iran.
The U.K. issued a General License Sept. 29 under its Russia sanctions regime to provide certainty that a credit or financial institution can return a payment to another such institution which has been processed by a sanctioned credit or financial institution at some point in the payment chain. The license applies when the sanctioned party acted as an original, correspondent or intermediary institution where the recipient institution and the institution that sent the payment are not designated parties, and the original account holder and the original intended recipient are not sanctioned parties. The license expires at the end of the day on Dec. 1.
LONDON -- The U.K. is on track to fully deploy the country’s new digital export licensing system in March 2025, said Rosemary Pratt, director of the U.K.’s Export Control Joint Unit. Pratt said the new system, which has faced several delays, has been a “very long running, challenging project,” but it’s now entering the “final phase” and will make export licensing more efficient for U.K. companies.
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week suspended the export privileges of three people for illegally exporting weapons or ammunition to Mexico and one person for illegally exporting firearms and gun parts to Haiti.
The Bureau of Industry and Security completed a round of interagency review for a final rule that would implement export control changes and updates agreed to during the 2022 Wassenaar Arrangement cycle. The rule was sent for review July 18 (see 2307190015), with the review completed Sept. 29.
LONDON -- The State Department hasn’t yet seen much participation in its open general license pilot program despite releasing the licenses more than a year ago, said Catherine Hamilton, the licensing director for the agency’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Hamilton said the licenses specifically aren’t “really being used in the U.K. as we had envisioned.”
Exporters should require their customers to sign written compliance certifications if the shipment involves items that fall under one of nine high-priority Harmonized System codes and the customer is in a country outside of the U.S.-led global export controls coalition, the Bureau of Industry and Security said. Although these customer certifications or end-user statements are not mandated by law, BIS said it’s recommending that companies begin using the certifications if they aren’t already, saying in a new best practices guidance that these statements will help prevent diversion of controlled items to Russia.
The U.K. added 10 individuals and one entity to its Russia sanctions regime in a Sept. 29 notice. The individuals include members of the Russian-installed governments in occupied regions of Ukraine, Russian Central Election Commission members and Russian government officials in Crimea. The sanctioned entity is the Russian Central Election Commission, which arranged illegitimate referendums in occupied Ukrainian regions and attempted to legitimize the results.
The U.K. updated its Russia sanctions guidance to add additional licensing grounds with the aim of divesting from Russia, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said. The guidance says that, for divestment purposes, a license may be granted to provide oil refining goods, energy-related goods, luxury goods, jet fuel and "Russia's vulnerable goods" in Russia or to someone linked with Russia. The licensing grounds also cover the provision of technical assistance, brokering services, financial services or funds related to the oil refining goods, energy-related goods, jet fuel and Russia's vulnerable goods.
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is seeking public comments on two information collections, involving beneficial ownership information reports and the FinCEN Identifier Application. FinCEN recently published a rule to require certain entities to report to the agency information about their beneficial owners, which would help U.S. authorities determine whether sanctioned parties or others are illegally hiding money or property in the U.S. (see 2309280006). Under the rule, parties can apply for a “FinCEN Identifier,” a unique identifying number that entities can submit instead of their identifying information, which can serve as a “data security” tool. Comments are due by Oct. 30.