The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned five people in Mali for threatening the country’s peace and obstructing humanitarian aid, Treasury said in a Dec. 20 press release. The United Nations Security Council also designated the five people, imposing asset freezes throughout UN member states, according to a Dec. 19 press release.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control renewed a license authorizing certain transactions with COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co. and amended three Iran-related frequently asked questions, OFAC said in a Dec. 19 notice. General License K-1, which replaced General License K, authorizes transactions relating to the maintenance or wind-down of dealings with the COSCO subsidiary until Feb. 4, 2020. The license was previously set to expire Dec. 20.
U.S. companies and exporters have not told the Trump administration that sanctions on Venezuela are hurting their business, according to Elliott Abrams, the State Department’s special representative for Venezuela. As the U.S. continues one of its most active sanctions regimes (see 1911190028) against a country it says is marred by corruption and human rights abuses, companies are becoming more understanding of U.S. foreign policy goals, Abrams said.
The U.S. extended sanctions related to global human rights abuses for one year, according to a Dec. 18 notice issued by the White House. Human rights violations “continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat” to the U.S. national and economic security, the notice said. The notice extends sanctions outlined in a 2017 executive order that provides authority for actions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
The European Union’s Dec. 13 decision to renew Russian sanctions for six months (see 1912160009) will target Russia’s financial, energy and defense sectors and focus on the area of dual-use goods, according to a Dec. 19 press release from the European Council. Specifically, the sanctions are aimed at limiting access to EU primary and secondary capital markets for five “major” Russian state-owned financial institutions and their subsidiaries, as well as three Russian energy and three defense companies. The sanctions also impose an import and export ban on arms trade, establish an export ban for dual-use goods for military use or military end-users in Russia, and aim to curtail Russian access to “sensitive technologies and services” used for oil production and exploration, the press release said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two Iranian judges who have “punished” citizens for exercising freedoms of expression and assembly, Treasury said in a Dec. 19 press release. The sanctions target Abolghassem Salavati, who presides over Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, and Mohammad Moghisseh, who presides over Branch 28.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated a Guatemalan mayor, four Guatemalan nationals, five Guatemalan businesses and a drug trafficking organization as significant narcotics traffickers, Treasury said in a Dec. 19 press release. OFAC sanctioned Erik Salvador Suñiga Rodriguez, the Suñiga Rodriguez drug trafficking organization and various associates and family members of Rodriguez, including Wildin Tulio Jui Escobar, Juan Carlos Cruz Ovalle, Jose Juan Suñiga Rodriguez and Alex Oswaldo Parada Rodriguez. The sanctioned entities include Multiservicios y Finca El Encanto (an agricultural company), Rancho La Dorada (an agricultural company), Cevicheria La Concha (a restaurant), Star Market Melanye (a grocery store) and JC Car Audio (a car audio store), Treasury said. Treasury also released a chart related to the sanctions.
The U.S. sanctions bill against Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline may not have the chilling effect that lawmakers expect, trade experts said. The U.S. should introduce export controls to bolster the sanctions, the experts said, but those restrictions may be too late because the Russia-Germany pipeline is nearing completion. The bill also may disproportionately sanction German businesses involved in the project instead of the real target, they said, which is Russia.
China's Foreign Ministry criticized the Commerce Department’s efforts to restrict sales of emerging technologies (see 1912160032), saying the U.S. is “abusing export control measures” and “impeding” cooperation between the two countries. A ministry spokesperson said the U.S. is “over-generalizing” the concept of national security as justification for the export controls, which are aimed at preventing countries, including China, from acquiring access to sensitive U.S. technologies. “Don't think you can ever deter China's growth as well as scientific and technological innovation by limiting exports of high-end technologies to us,” the spokesman said during a Dec. 18 press conference. “You are being too arrogant.”
The U.S. and Japan recently agreed to new terms to allow the trade of poultry to continue in case of a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak in the U.S., the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report released Dec. 16. The new measures allow Japan to restrict imports at the country level, rather than at the state level, if it “concludes that the outbreak is appropriately controlled in the affected country,” the report said. Along with general poultry products, the measures also impact “shell eggs” and other egg products exported from the U.S. to Japan. USDA updated its export certificates Dec. 10 to reflect the new conditions.