The Office of Foreign Assets Control published a previously issued general license under its Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations. The full text of the license is available in the notice.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned two South Sudan individuals who have “abused their positions of political and military authority to carry out acts of sexual violence” against the country’s citizens. The designations target James Nando, a major general in the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces, and Alfred Futuyo, Western Equatoria governor involved with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-In Opposition.
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The Department of Defense recently released a new set of recommendations designed to speed up military goods exports under its Foreign Military Sales program, an initiative long requested by defense companies. DOD said the recommendations highlight “key FMS pressure points” and are aimed at “breaking historical inefficiencies in the United States' transfer of defense articles and services to foreign allies and partners.”
A Latvia-based bank reached a $3.4 million settlement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control to resolve allegations it violated U.S. sanctions relating to Crimea, OFAC said June 20. Swedbank Latvia AS, a subsidiary of Sweden-based Swedbank AB, allowed a customer to use its e-banking platform from an internet protocol address in Crimea to send payments to persons in Crimea through U.S. correspondent banks, OFAC said, which resulted in 386 violations of U.S. sanctions.
The EU this week released an economic security strategy, detailing plans to improve export controls over sensitive technologies and study whether it needs better guardrails around inbound investments and new restrictions around outbound investments. The strategy could lead to new proposals surrounding export controls and investment restrictions by the end of the year.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is working “day-in and day-out” on a final rule that will make tweaks to its China-related chip export controls released in October (see 2210070049), said BIS Senior Export Policy Analyst Sharron Cook. But a public release of the rule isn’t imminent -- the agency hasn’t yet sent the changes to be reviewed by other agencies, said Hillary Hess, regulatory policy director at BIS.
A group of European countries not in the EU aligned with two recent European Council sanctions moves under its Iran and Syria sanctions regimes.
Even as Europe comes to see China as a systemic rival, the entanglement of the German and Chinese economies continues unabated, and what "de-risking" should look like is hotly contested, witnesses told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission at a hearing late last week.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said advocates for free trade agreements who argue that 95% of customers are outside our borders are myopic.