The International Trade Administration published its 2025 Defense Export Handbook, which it said serves as a “toolkit” for companies looking to comply with government regulations for defense exports. It gives guidance to businesses that are new to exporting defense items and includes “tips to navigate” U.S. export requirements, including those governing foreign military sales, direct commercial sales, shipments regulated by the Bureau of Industry and Security and Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, and more.
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., announced Jan. 17 that he has reintroduced two sanctions bills aimed at Russian activities in Ukraine.
Vice President JD Vance swore in former Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., as secretary of state Jan. 21, a day after the Senate voted unanimously to approve Rubio's nomination. On the first day in his new role, Rubio was scheduled to meet with his counterparts from Australia, India and Japan. At his Jan. 15 confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio defended the role of sanctions and said he hopes to reverse a decline in the State Department’s influence in foreign policy-making (see 2501150066).
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President Donald Trump took several steps during his first day in office to reverse, delay or scrutinize trade- and sanctions-related actions introduced by the Biden administration, ordering agencies to study existing export controls for possible loopholes, consider changes to outbound investment restrictions, or possibly postpone some of Biden’s recently issued rulemakings. Trump also revoked a sanctions authority that had targeted Israeli settlers in the West Bank and previewed plans to step up sanctions against drug cartels.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is planning to hold its annual update conference March 18-20 in Washington, according to the agency’s website. Registration for the conference hasn’t yet opened.
A bipartisan group of four lawmakers reintroduced a bill Jan. 14 that would rank countries on their efforts to fight corruption, and would direct the State Department to evaluate whether the worst offenders should be subject to sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
The U.K. on Jan. 17 amended the sanctions listing for Domingo Antonio Hernandez Larez, the commander in chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, under its Venezuelan sanctions regime. The updated listing removed one of his job titles.
The U.S. last week sanctioned a group of people and entities under a recently revised executive order that authorizes sanctions against those threatening the sovereignty of the Western Balkans (see 2501080025). The designations target five people and one entity supporting the corruption of Milorad Dodik, the sanctioned president of the Serb Republic, and eight others who organized a “Republika Srpska Day” last year in contravention of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the 1995 accords that put an end to the yearslong Bosnian War.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned Yin Kecheng, a Shanghai-based hacker, and Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology Co., LTD., a China-based cybersecurity company, for their roles in cyber attacks against the U.S. OFAC said Yin was involved in the recent reported hacking of the Treasury Department by the Chinese government (see 2501020009) and Juxinhe Network has ties to the Salt Typhoon cyber group, which recently hacked the networks of multiple major U.S. telecommunications and internet service providers.