The Commerce Department is reviewing export license applications to sell to Huawei in order to “mitigate as much of the negative impacts of the entity listing as possible” and hopes to have decisions “soon,” said Nazak Nikakhtar, Commerce undersecretary for the industry and security.
In the July 8 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Gibraltar Port and Law Enforcement detained and seized a ship it said was violating European Union sanctions against Syria, Gibraltar said in a July 4 press release. Authorities stopped the “super tanker,” Grace 1, after suspecting it was carrying crude oil bound for Syria’s Banyas Oil Refinery Company, which is sanctioned by the EU. Gibraltar later confirmed the ship was "loaded to capacity with crude oil" and was stopped after it entered Gibraltar territorial waters, according to a July 8 press release. Reuters reported the ship is Iranian and flies a Panama flag.
Iran surpassed the enriched uranium limit that was agreed to as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the country announced July 7, sparking concern from the European Union and threats of additional sanctions by the U.S.
Jersey’s minister for external relations put forth a sanctions law last fall that has been enacted to “preserve Jersey’s power” to impose European Union sanctions after the United Kingdom leaves the EU, according to a press release and a July 3 notice. The law gives Jersey, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of France, the right to impose the same sanctions as under the U.K.’s current regime, including the U.K.’s Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act, after Brexit. The change takes effect July 19, the notice said.
The United Nations Security Council Sanctions Committee on Iraq removed sanctions from 13 Iraq entities on its list, according to a July 4 notice and June 28 press release. The move comes just four days after the same committee approved lifting sanctions on 17 separate Iraq entities (see 1906270014).
The United Kingdom made several technical changes to its Export Control Order of 2008, the U.K.’s Department for International Trade said in a June 30 press release. Among the changes, the U.K. is updating its list of defense-related products to correspond with changes made to the European Common Military List, the press release said.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Cubametales, Cuba’s state-run oil import-export company, for importing oil from Venezuela, Treasury said in a July 3 press release. In exchange for the oil, Treasury said, Cubametales provides Venezuela and the Nicolas Maduro regime with “defense, intelligence and security assistance.”
Instex, the European payment system designed to allow countries to trade with Iran despite U.S. sanctions, is mostly symbolic, several trade lawyers said. The system is a potentially useful tool to appease Iran’s demands for greater cooperation with Europe, lawyers said, but likely an insignificant mechanism in brokering major trade.
If the Iran nuclear deal collapses and Europe imposes a set of automatic snapback sanctions, the U.S. would likely follow with its own set of additional Iran sanctions, including greater enforcement on non-U.S. entities and sanctions on Iran’s trading partners, said Inessa Owens, a trade lawyer with Baker McKenzie.