The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a final rule to reflect the United Arab Emirates formally ending its participation in the Arab League Boycott of Israel. Under the rule, effective June 8, certain “requests for information, action or agreement from the UAE” will not be “presumed to be boycott-related” -- and therefore not restricted or reportable under the Export Administration Regulations -- if they were made before Aug. 16, 2020, BIS said.
The Shanghai-based Xin Bai law firm released a May report on sanctions in China (see 2101110042), providing an overview and “practical information” on China’s evolving sanctions regime. The report lays out the framework of China’s sanctions legislation, including what types of sanctions it can impose, the scope of those restrictions, potential penalties, compliance requirements for businesses, and the export licensing and reporting process.
Linda Lourie, who previously worked as an acquisitions and logistics counsel for the Defense Department, will join the White House to focus on investment screening and export control issues, she announced June 2 on LinkedIn. Lourie will be the assistant director for research and technology security at the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she said she will work on “national security issues of research and technology security.” This will include the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., export restrictions and intellectual property, she said. The White House didn’t comment.
3M, a U.S. producer of aluminum oxide fibers, announced that its “Nextel 312 ceramic fibers and textiles” were removed from export control license requirements due to a Commerce Department final rule published in March (see 2103260019). The rule made several revisions to the agency’s Commerce Control List to implement changes made during the 2019 Wassenaar Arrangement and removed license requirements for a range of Nextel 312 products, including Nextel 312 “fibers, rovings, yarns, sewing threads, tapes, sleevings, and fabrics,” 3M said June 2. The products are “now available globally,” the company said, “reducing previous barriers that slowed down global customer adoption.”
The European Commission in a May 27 opinion clarified two questions on national competent authorities (NCAs) requirements regarding assets frozen under various sanctions. One question asked whether it's legal under the EU's Libyan sanctions to liquidate an EU investment fund compartment that holds a listed entity's shares if the proceeds are then immediately frozen in a segregated EU bank account. The second involves whether it is possible under the Syrian sanctions to transfer a frozen bank account from an EU-based branch to the United Kingdom parent bank. In answering both, the commission focused on ensuring no one could use the assets.
The Biden administration announced an interagency review and strategy to better combat corruption, including through the use of sanctions. In a June 3 memo, President Joe Biden directed the Treasury, Commerce and State departments, along with other agencies and offices, to consider recommendations for an improved anti-corruption strategy, which should rely on asset freezing, sanctions, enforcement actions and more robust ownership reporting to Treasury. The U.S. should be “building upon targeted anticorruption sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act and similar authorities,” the White House said in a fact sheet. The U.S. should also better work with allies to counter corruption by foreign leaders, state-owned companies and others by “closing loopholes exploited by these actors to interfere in democratic processes in the United States and abroad.” The interagency review will take place over the next 200 days.
The State Department announced debarments against seven people convicted of violating the Arms Export Control Act. The debarments, which will be imposed starting June 4, target Ronald Adjei Danso, Julian Alonso Higuera, Qingshan Li (see 2006150026), Si Mong Park (see 2009220055), Maritza Rubio, Wei Sun (see 2011180019) and Randy Lew Williams. All seven are “generally ineligible” to participate in activity controlled by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations for three years following their dates of convictions. At the end of that period, they must apply to be reinstated from their debarment before engaging in ITAR activities.
President Joe Biden issued a new executive order expanding a Trump-era policy that banned investments in Chinese military companies (see 2105190009). The order, issued June 3, includes an initial list of 59 entities and expands the scope of the restrictions to cover companies operating in China’s surveillance technology sector, which the White House said produces technologies to commit human rights violations against Muslim minorities.
More than 20 House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans said they remain “deeply concerned” about the Biden administration's decision to waive sanctions against the company behind the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project (see 2105260019) and said they weren’t satisfied by the State Department’s justification. The lawmakers, including the committee’s top Republican, Rep. Mike McCaul of Texas, said the sanctions waiver contradicts the administration's “repeated public opposition” to the completion of the pipeline.
The U.S. sanctioned six Bulgarians and 64 entities for their “extensive roles in corruption" in Bulgaria, the Treasury and State departments said June 2. OFAC said the designations represented the “single largest action targeting corruption to date” and demonstrated the agency’s commitment to sanctioning corrupt business networks. The measures target former and current Bulgarian government officials -- Vassil Kroumov Bojkov, Delyan Slavchev Peevski and Ilko Dimitrov Zhelyazkov -- along with 64 of their entities. The State Department also announced that it designated Alexander Manolev, Petar Haralampiev and Krasimir Tomov, as well as Peevski and Zhelyazkov, for corruption.