Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Oct. 7-11 in case they were missed.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Turkey’s government and issued three general licenses as Congress called for harsher restrictions on Turkey for its military activities in Syria (see 1910140005). OFAC’s sanctions -- issued after President Donald Trump announced an executive order granting the Treasury and State departments new power to sanction Turkey -- target Turkey’s defense ministry, energy ministry, defense minister (Hulusi Akar), energy minister (Fatih Donmez) and interior minister (Suleyman Soylu). Treasury said more sanctions may be coming.
The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs on Oct. 10 issued new guidance documents outlining procedures for importing and exporting excise goods between the U.K. and the European Union after Brexit. “After Brexit, imports of excise goods from the EU will be treated the same as imports from the rest of the world. This includes moving imported excise goods within the UK,” the guidance said. The Simplified Accompanying Administrative Document (SAAD) and EU distance-selling arrangements will no longer be used, and a customs declaration will have to be completed, though a full declaration may not be necessary if transitional simplified procedures are used, it said.
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule setting new significant new use rules (SNURs) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for 28 chemical substances that were the subject of premanufacture notices (PMNs). As a result of the SNURs, persons planning to manufacture, import or process any of the chemicals for an activity that is designated as a significant new use by this rule are required to notify EPA at least 90 days in advance. Importers of chemicals subject to these proposed SNURs will need to certify their compliance with the SNUR requirements, and exporters of these chemicals will be subject to export notification requirements. The SNURs take effect Dec. 16.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two South Sudan businessmen and six entities for involvement in corruption -- including bribes, kickbacks and procurement fraud -- with senior government officials, Treasury said in an Oct. 11 press release. The two men, Ashraf Seed Ahmed Al-Cardinal and Kur Ajing Ater, were designated under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The sanctioned companies include five owned by Al-Cardinal and one owned by Ajing.
President Donald Trump announced a "very substantial phase 1" deal in the Oval Office Oct. 11, saying the Chinese and American negotiators came to a deal on intellectual property, financial services and agricultural sales. The president said China will buy as much as $40 billion to $50 billion worth of American commodities. He also said good progress had been made on issues around technology transfer from American companies to Chinese partners.
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order giving the Treasury Department “very significant” new sanctions authorities to target the Turkish government, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Oct. 11. The authorities will include primary sanctions and secondary sanctions, Mnuchin said, but stressed the U.S. is not yet activating the sanctions. “We are putting financial institutions on notice that they should be careful, and that there could be sanctions,” Mnuchin said. “Again, there are no sanctions at this time, but this will be the broadest executive authorities delegated to us.”
FedEx urged a court to deny the Commerce Department’s motion to dismiss FedEx’s June lawsuit against the agency, saying Commerce’s points were invalid, court records show. FedEx’s original suit alleged Commerce’s export controls were “unconstitutional,” “impossible to comply with” and placed an “overbroad, disproportionate burden” on FedEx (see 1906250030). Commerce responded in September by asking the court to dismiss the suit because it said it was a political matter, was precluded from judicial review under the Export Control Reform Act, and that FedEx did not raise a “patent violation” and did not meet the conditions to file a due process claim (see 1909110073).
President Donald Trump said he will soon authorize “powerful” sanctions against Turkey for its recent military actions in Syria. The sanctions will target former and current Turkish government officials and anyone contributing to Turkey’s actions, Trump said, adding that the U.S. will also “immediately stop” negotiating a trade deal with Turkey.
The United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade on Oct. 10 posted guidance documents on the U.K.’s respective export licensing policies for Senegal, Guinea -Bissau and Benin. Each of the three members of the Economic Community of West African States, and as such the U.K. “will not issue an export license for small arms ad light weapons, components or ammunition,” the three guidances all said. The U.K. “will only consider issuing license applications where the ECOWAS Commission has issued an exception to its moratorium,” UKDIT said. The guidances note that military items transiting the U.K. “are still regarded as being exported when they leave the country and are therefore subject to control.” There’s an exception to that policy on transit when “certain military goods destined for Senegal, meaning that a licence is required to transit goods through the UK or to tranship them in the UK with a view to re-exportation to Senegal,” UKDIT said.