The Bureau of Industry and Security is preparing new proposed export controls on automated peptide synthesizers, building off a September advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (see 2209120021). The agency sent the proposed rule for interagency review March 29.
The U.S. and more than 20 of its allies this week released an export controls code of conduct, establishing a new forum for “subscribing states” to share information and stop technologies from being used for human rights violations. The Bureau of Industry and Security also issued new guidance describing how it factors human rights issues into its export application decisions and outlining the due diligence responsibilities of exporters.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week announced a 20-year export denial order against a Montana resident and his two companies for violating U.S. export controls against Iran. BIS in June charged Kenneth Scott and his companies, Scott Communications and Mission Communications, with shipping export-controlled radios knowing they would be delivered to Iran, failing to maintain export records, making false statements to FBI and BIS agents and more (see 2206100053).
Thomas Feddo, former assistant Treasury secretary for investment security, joined Patomak Global Partners as a senior adviser. Feddo will advise on "sanctions and foreign investment-related risks for domestic and international conglomerates and financial institutions," the firm said this week. Feddo served at Treasury from 2018 to 2021, where he led the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation issued a new Russia-related general license authorizing certain transactions involving bond amendments and restructurings. The license lets a company, entity or institution that has issued a bond that has or may have bondholders who are sanctioned parties "effect the terms of any Bond restructuring or amendments agreed between itself and its Bondholders" through March 28, 2025. This permission only applies if no funds or economic resources are made available to a designated party as part of any such bond restructuring and any funds that a designated party would be entitled to are frozen and not made available to the designated party until they are no longer sanctioned. The license also permits a British person or entity to take any steps needed to "effect a bond restructuring," as long as the same two conditions listed previously also apply.
The EU plans to launch a new project with nine member states to root out gaps in the bloc's Russia sanctions regime and boost coordination between national authorities when imposing penalties, Bloomberg reported March 29. The project, which will deepen ties between the European Commission and member state governments, could lay the groundwork for a new EU body to coordinate sanctions implementation, the officials said. The new project, to run for two years starting around June, would be the first instance of the EU's executive wing backing member states on sanctions enforcement at this scale, the Bloomberg report said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week suspended the export privileges of three people for illegally shipping items to China and Mexico.
The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee applauded the recent U.S. sanctions against Syria but said more should be done. “It is good to see the U.S. and UK working together to counter the Assad regime and Hezbollah’s dangerous role in narco-trafficking,” Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in a press release this week, referencing the designations imposed by both countries against Syrian military officials and other people and companies involved in smuggling amphetamines (see 2303280026). “The administration needs to keep up the pressure to counter this growing threat, including by making sure countries normalizing with Assad understand they are working with a drug lord.”
A new Republican-backed bill in the Senate and House could lead to U.S. sanctions against senior Argentine government officials. The bill, led in the Senate by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and in the House by Rep. Maria Salazar of Florida, would require the president to investigate five Argentine officials for corruption: Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner; her son, former lawmaker Maximo Kirchner; Vice Minister of Justice Juan Martin Mena; Sen. Oscar Isidro Jose Parrilli; and Carlos Alberto Zannini, the Argentina Treasury's lead prosecutor. If the president determines they “meet the criteria for corruption sanctions, the bill mandates the imposition of those sanctions,” according to Cruz’s news release.
Reps. John Garamendi, D-Calif., and Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., unveiled new legislation this week that they said will build on last year’s Ocean Shipping Reform Act (see 2303240068) by further expanding the Federal Maritime Commission's authority and “crack down” on China’s “attempts to influence America’s supply chain.” The Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act, introduced March 29, would block U.S. ports from using Chinese state-sponsored logistics software, allow the FMC to investigate foreign shipping exchanges to “preempt improper business practices," authorize the commission to “streamline data standards” to aid maritime freight logistics and more.