A top Treasury official acknowledged criticism that the agency is abusing its sanctions powers but stood by the approach, saying the sanctions are necessary and that the Treasury is mitigating impacts on U.S. companies by issuing more compliance guidance.
Russia is considering new bills that would counter anti-Russian sanctions through criminal charges and the creation of an “‘unreliable’ payment processors list,” according to a July 30 Lexology report and notices from the Russian State Duma.
The Senate on July 29 failed to override President Donald Trump’s vetoes of three separate resolutions blocking the U.S.’s arms deal with Saudi Arabia and with the United Arab Emirates. The effort failed in each of the votes -- 45-40, 45-39 and 46-41 -- which needed a two-thirds majority to pass. The sales, announced in May by the State Department, used the Arms Export Control Act’s emergency provision to bypass congressional approval and move forward with 22 arms transfers worth about $8 billion to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Sen Pat Roberts, R-Kan., that the U.S and Europe are at an impasse on trade talks, because the EU is not willing to talk about its barriers to U.S. agriculture exports.
The House passed a bill July 25 that urges the president to “prioritize” a new framework to improve export licensing. The provision, part of the Department of State Authorization Act of 2019, said the administration should “streamline licensing” by revising “Special Comprehensive Export Authorizations” for exports to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, any of the organization's member countries, Sweden and any other country described in the Arms Export Control Act. The bill also makes several technical changes to the AECA, including an amendment that changes the purposes for which U.S. military sales are authorized from an “internal security justification” to a “legitimate internal security (including for anti-terrorism purposes).”
The State Department is designating the mayor of Durres, Albania, and his immediate family members for “involvement in significant corruption,” the agency said in a July 30 press release. Vangjush Dako is being sanctioned under the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 22-26 in case they were missed.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control’s amendments to its reporting, procedures and penalties regulations are unclear and too broad, the Association of University Export Control Officers and The Clearing House Association said in July 22 comments, joining a series of trade associations that have been critical of the regulations' amendments.
Vietnam’s automated customs clearance system has launched in every customs office throughout the country and the nation has cut down on “administrative procedures in the field,” Vietnam's Customs deputy director general said July 29, according to a report from Vietnam Plus. Deputy Director General Hoang Viet Cuong spoke during a “consultation seminar” on a draft circular on customs risk management, highlighting the need “to build the circular in order to facilitate exports-imports and control law abidance in the field.” Claudio Dordi, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Trade Facilitation Program, had praise for Vietnam's efforts in trade facilitation, and said the circular will improve business transparency and help the country “effectively realise free trade agreements,” according to the report.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a North Korean citizen in Vietnam for being a North Korean political official and working for a sanctioned North Korean entity, Treasury said in a July 29 press release. Kim Su Il had “ties” to the Workers’ Party of Korea and is an employee of the Munitions Industry Department (MID), which is sanctioned by both the United Nations and the U.S. for being involved with North Korea’s missile program, the press release said. Treasury said Kim Su Il worked for the MID in Vietnam and has exported “anthracite coal, titanium ore concentrate” and imported and exported “various other goods, including raw materials, to and from North Korea.” He also exported Vietnamese products to China, North Korea and other countries, the press release said. Along with trading, Kim Su Il also chartered ships.