The annual trade policy agenda report, put out by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, celebrated victories in export market access in 2019, even as it reported that goods exports fell by $21 billion compared with 2018. Manufacturing exports, which accounted for 83% of total goods exports, were down by $34.7 billion in 2019. Agricultural exports, which accounted for 9% of total goods exports, were down by $3 billion in 2019.
The United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended two entries on its ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qaida sanctions list, according to a March 2 notice. The changes affected the entries for the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and the Islamic State West Africa Province. The two groups were sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council in February (see 2002260038).
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two Chinese nationals who laundered stolen cryptocurrency, Treasury said in a March 2 news release. The two people, Tian Yinyin and Li Jiadong, were responsible for a 2018 “cyber intrusion” linked to Lazarus Group, a North Korean state-sponsored “malicious cyber group” sanctioned in September for cyber espionage and data theft (see 1909130039). Tian and Li were also designated for providing financial, material or technological support for Lazarus Group.
The Treasury Department’s recent settlement with a Swiss telecommunications and information technology organization highlighted the agency’s ability to “effectively” impose primary sanctions obligations on a non-U.S. person, according to a Feb. 28 post from MassPoint Legal and Strategy Advisory. It also showed how the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control can base sanctions jurisdiction on the “involvement in foreign transactions of U.S.-origin software and technology and telecommunications hardware” located in the U.S.
Companies looking to comply with U.S. sanctions should use screening programs from trusted third parties instead of trying to build their own, according to Brian Grant, head of global compliance of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. The need for companies to have robust compliance programs has grown “significantly” over the last several years, he said, and using screening software and procedures from experienced companies creates less risk.
The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls released a recording of its Feb. 13 Defense Export Control and Compliance System webinar (see 2002070048), covering corporate administrators, user management, access groups, self service. The registration and licensing applications for DECCS launched Feb. 18 (see 2002190025).
Europe completed the first transactions under INSTEX, the European payment system designed to allow countries to trade with Iran despite U.S. sanctions, according to a Feb. 26 news release from the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. During a recent meeting, the commission, which includes representatives from China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and Iran, also said it added four more European countries as “new shareholders” in INSTEX and expects more to join. “Participants welcomed positive developments in the processing of first transactions by INSTEX,” the news release said. The news release did not name the new shareholders.
The European Council sanctioned two Turkish officials for Turkey’s illegal drilling activities (see 2001210021) in the Eastern Mediterranean, according to a Feb. 27 news release. The officials, Mehmet Ferruh Akalin and Ali Coscum Namoglu, head the state-controlled Turkish Petroleum Corporation and are responsible for the illegal “offshore hydrocarbon exploration activities,” the EU said.
Companies should ensure their data is fully encrypted with no access by third parties before using the new encryption carve-out in the upcoming amendments to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, according to a cybersecurity compliance expert and a trade lawyer. Although they lauded the ITAR for recognizing that some technology, such as encryption, can protect transfers of export controlled data, both said complying fully with the carve-out may be complicated. “There is a wrong way to do the end-to-end encryption, so you need to be very careful when applying it,” said Alex Major, a cybersecurity and trade lawyer with McCarter & English, speaking during a Feb. 27 webinar hosted by the Massachusetts Export Center.
China and Canada must resolve ongoing disputes that have hurt exports of canola since China blocked Canadian imports of the product nearly a year ago (see 1903060058), the Canola Council of Canada said in a Feb. 27 news release. “The canola sector is being targeted by China over a dispute with Canada,” said Jim Everson, president of the CCC. “Farmers and the industry they’re part of cannot continue to shoulder the impact of something entirely out of their control.” Canola seed exports to China were down about 70% in 2019 due to trade disruption, the trade group said.