China recently updated its customs regulations and policies related to imports of art and auto parts, according to KPMG’s monthly China customs update for the month of May. China has also announced that it is fully implementing the TIR Carnet system, and announced new AD duties on phenol from the U.S., KPMG said. Highlights are as follows:
China is looking into additional measures to protect its technology firms and strengthen controls on exports through a “national technological security management list system,” according to state news agencies.
In the June 7 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (PGPIC), Iran’s “largest and most profitable petrochemical holding group,” as well as 39 of its subsidiaries, Treasury said in a June 7 press release. PGPIC was sanctioned for funding Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, which Treasury said is the “engineering conglomerate” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced a $400,000 settlement agreement with Western Union Financial Services after OFAC said Western Union committed nearly 5,000 violations of the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations, OFAC said in a June 7 notice. Western Union, headquartered in Colorado, processed transactions that involved the Kairaba Shopping Center (KSC) in The Gambia, a Specially Designated National, for more than four years after the entity was sanctioned by OFAC, the notice said. After Western Union discovered KSC was sanctioned, OFAC said, it “failed to deactivate” the entity’s access to Western Union “due to its mistaken belief that” the entity was “already inactive.” Western Union processed transactions worth about $ 1.275 million “to third-party, non-designated beneficiaries who chose to collect their remittances at KSC,” the notice said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control amended three Venezuela-related general licenses and issued frequently asked questions for guidance, OFAC said in a June 6 notice. OFAC amended General License 7A, which authorizes certain transactions related to PDV Holding, Inc. and CITGO Holding, Inc; General License 8, which authorizes certain transactions involving Petroleos de Venezuela for entities operating in Venezuela; and General License 13, which authorizes certain transactions involving Nynas AB. The addition to OFAC’s FAQs concerns the export and re-export of “diluents” to Venezuela. Diluents such as crude oil and naphtha "play a key role in the transportation and exportation of Venezuelan petroleum," which is a major revenue source for the regime of Nicolas Maduro, which the U.S. seeks to suppress.
The European Commission referred Spain to the European Union’s Court of Justice for imposing “disproportionate penalties” on Spanish taxpayers who violate sanctions, the EC said in a June 6 press release. Spanish taxpayers must report on any properties, bank accounts or financial assets they hold abroad, the press release said, and are sanctioned if the information is not reported accurately or on time, sometimes facing sanctions “higher than those for similar infringements in a purely domestic situation.” The EC said Spain’s sanctions penalties are “disproportionate and discriminatory,” and may “deter businesses and private individuals from investing or moving across borders in the Single Market.” Spain’s sanctions are “in conflict with the fundamental freedoms of the EU,” the EC said.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security renewed the temporary denial order of export privileges issued to Mahan Airways and several affiliated people and entities in 2018, according to an order signed by the Office of Export Enforcement on June 5. The order was renewed to “prevent an imminent violation” of more regulations, Commerce said.
House members and experts made the case for a quick and long-term reauthorization for the Export-Import Bank of the United States during a June 4 House Financial Services Committee hearing, saying the move could significantly benefit U.S. exporters and help counter China’s export credit agencies and state subsidies. The hearing came about a month after the Senate voted to confirm three appointees to the bank’s board of directors, giving the bank enough directors for a quorum to approve transactions of more than $10 million (see 1905080073).
The Commerce Department is planning to expand end-use checks for export controls, said Nazak Nikakhtar, the nominee for Commerce’s undersecretary for industry and security, a move she said is part of a broader reform movement to improve “export control coordination.”