President Joe Biden extended by one year national emergencies that authorize certain sanctions related to Yemen, the Central African Republic, Iraq and Syria, the White House said May 9. Respectively, the extensions are through May 16, May 12, May 22 and May 11, 2023.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned five “financial facilitators” for the Islamic State group of Iraq and Syria. The people operate across Indonesia, Syria and Turkey and help “extremists” travel to Syria and other regions where ISIS operates, OFAC said. The facilitator network also helps the group conduct financial transfers. The agency designated Dwi Dahlia Susanti, Rudi Heryadi, Ari Kardian, Muhammad Dandi Adhiguna and Dini Ramadhani.
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The U.S. needs to be careful when imposing export controls on emerging technologies to avoid hurting U.S. research and innovation, said Robert Blair, Microsoft's senior director-5G and external affairs. Blair, speaking during a May 10 event hosted by the Task Force on American Innovation, said industry wants to help the administration stem the proliferation of technologies to bad actors while also avoiding hurting the competitiveness of U.S. companies, specifically those working on quantum technologies.
The Treasury Department has enough evidence to show that its Russia sanctions are being violated and needs to move faster to impose secondary sanctions, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said. He said he and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., plan to push the agency to act.
The U.K. added Russian steel manufacturing and mining company Evraz to its Russia sanctions regime, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said in a May 5 notice. The company is now subject to an asset freeze. Per a statement from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Evraz makes 28% of all Russian railway wheels and 97% of Russian railtracks. The OFSI notice listing Evraz also corrected eight entries under the Russia sanctions regime.
Hungary blocked an EU proposal to ban Russian oil imports at a meeting of the EU's 27 ambassadors that ended on May 8 without an agreement, Bloomberg reported May 8, quoting "people familiar with the talks." The proposal would ban crude oil imports from Russia, phasing in the ban over the next six months, and also ban refined fuels by January. The EU offered Hungary and Slovakia until the end of 2024 to come into compliance with the bans and the Czech Republic until June 2023 to do the same, given their reliance on Russian oil, Bloomberg said.
The U.K. rolled out another round of sanctions on Russia and Belarus in response to their assault on Ukraine, the Department for International Trade announced May 9. The new restrictions target over $2 billion worth of goods, imposing tariffs on over $1.7 billion worth of Russian imports, including platinum and palladium, and export bans on over $307 million worth of goods, in an effort meant to disrupt Russia's manufacturing and heavy machinery industries.
Adding sanctions on Chinese surveillance company Hikvision would represent a “profound escalation” of U.S.-China technology tensions, prompt retaliation from China and further accelerate economic decoupling, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said May 6. The sanctions, reportedly under consideration by the Biden administration (see 2205040009), could “vault Hikvision past Huawei to become the most-sanctioned Chinese tech company,” the think tank said.
The U.S., the EU and the other G-7 members on May 9 announced a series of new sanctions and restrictions on Russia, including a ban on providing certain business management services to the country and a commitment to phase out imports of Russian oil. New U.S. restrictions include broader export controls and sanctions targeting Russian banking executives, a weapons manufacturer and state-owned media.