A Lebanese energy equipment company was fined $368,000 by the Bureau of Industry and Security after it illegally re-exported generators to Syria, according to a settlement agreement signed Nov. 27. Ghaddar Machinery allegedly committed 20 violations of the Export Administration Regulations from 2014 to 2016, totaling about $730,000 worth of exports, BIS said. Ghaddar agreed to pay the penalty in five installments through November 2021. Failure to make the payments could result in more penalties, according to the settlement agreement, including a two-year denial of export privileges.
Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., urged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to sanction Turkey, saying in a letter that Turkey’s purchase of Russian missile defense systems should be met with consequences. The senators said Turkey’s July purchase of Russian S-400 missile parts (see 1907150039) falls under the scope of the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control identified and sanctioned six ships belonging to Petroleos de Venezuela, Venezuela's sanctioned state-owned energy company, Treasury said in a Dec. 3 press release. The agency also identified the vessel Esperanza as blocked property of Caroil Transport Marine Ltd., which was sanctioned by OFAC in September. Esperanza was previously listed on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals List as “Nedas,” Treasury said.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Nov. 25-29 in case you missed them.
Switzerland is “absolutely convinced” it needs a free trade agreement with the U.S., which could benefit U.S. agricultural exporters, a Switzerland ambassador and Switzerland trade expert said during a Dec. 3 Heritage Foundation panel. But a deal may be unlikely, particularly because Switzerland faces the difficult decision of accepting U.S. agricultural safety standards over those of the European Union, a trade expert said. That decision presents a significant barrier to a potential trade deal.
Six European countries will become “shareholders” of Instex in an attempt to “facilitate legitimate trade” between Europe and Iran, according to a Nov. 29 notice from Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Finland, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden hope Instex -- the European payment system designed to allow countries to trade with Iran despite U.S. sanctions (see 1907010057) -- convinces Iran to stop breaching the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (see 1908050036). “It is crucial for the Islamic Republic of Iran to return without delay to full compliance with the terms and provisions of the nuclear agreement,” Finland said. Trade lawyers have said Instex is largely symbolic and unlikely to broker significant trade in its current form (see 1907030047), while the State Department said the system has no corporate demand within the EU (see 1908260035).
The State Department issued notices of its report to Congress under the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act, which requires the State and Treasury Departments to assess where Iran is buying sensitive materials for its nuclear program and which sectors of its economy are being controlled by the country’s military.
A U.S. citizen was charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act after he delivered a presentation and gave technical advice in North Korea on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, the Justice Department said in a Dec. 2 press release. The Singapore resident and U.S. citizen, Virgil Griffith, received “warnings” not to go to North Korea, the Justice Department said, adding that his actions constituted an evasion of U.S. sanctions.
The State Department sanctioned the Iran Space Agency, the Iran Space and Research Center and the Astronautics Research Institute for activities relating to weapons proliferation, manufacture, transport and use, according to a Dec. 2 notice. The sanctions block all U.S. property belong to the agency, property of people or companies who exported goods or provided support to the agencies and any companies owned by the agencies. The notice provides primary and alternative addresses for each of the agencies, which are based in Iran.
The State Department is removing sanctions on Buhary Seyed Abu Tahir, a Sri Lankan national and “key middleman” of the A.Q. Khan nuclear procurement network that was sanctioned in 2009, the agency said Dec. 2. Tahir was sanctioned under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Prevention Act and the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945, the agency said. The agency did not provide a reason the sanctions were being removed.