The United Nations Security Council renewed sanctions against South Sudan for one year, the U.N. said in a May 30 press release. The sanctions keep an arms embargo on South Sudan, restricting member states from selling any arms-related materials to the country and withholding “training, technical and financial assistance related to military activities or materials.”
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security's Office of Antiboycott Compliance settled with a U.S.-based company for $54,000 after the company committed 27 violations of the Export Administration Regulations, enforcement records show. An order signed by Commerce May 20 says Zurn Industries, LLC completed transactions from the U.S. to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates related to actions that “would have the effect of furthering or supporting a restrictive trade practice or unsanctioned foreign boycott.” Zurn did not report “receipts of these requests” to Commerce, as required by law, the records said. Zurn must pay the fine to Commerce within 30 days of the order or face additional charges, and may have export licenses or privileges revoked. If Zurn does not pay the fine, its “export privileges” will be denied for one year.
Although the Speaker of the House said the administration's decision to send over its Statement of Administrative Action and legal text of the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement was "not a positive step," some NAFTA watchers said this should not be seen as a sign that the administration is trying to force the speaker's hand and demand a vote before the August congressional recess.
CBP hopes to kick off implementation of pre-departure electronic export manifest filing by mid-July with the publication of a new business process document, said Jim Swanson, CBP director of cargo and security controls, at the May 30 meeting of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee in Laredo, Texas. Once it’s published, CBP will be able to begin reaching out to the 30-40 “tested stakeholders” that have been fully tested but are waiting on operational guidance, to “get them operational,” he said. Swanson has said pre-departure manifest is a key pre-condition to bringing back post-departure filing of Electronic Export Information (EEI) (see 1903080037).
China is creating a list to penalize foreign entities that damage the interests of Chinese companies, a sweeping but vague move widely viewed as a direct response to U.S.’s recent blacklisting of Huawei Technologies.
The French Banking Regulator’s Sanctions Committee announced on May 29 that it is bringing enforcement action on Raguram International for sanctions violations, according to a report from the committee and a post on the EU Sanctions blog. The committee announced enforcement on Raguram International for “deficiencies in screening customers” who are subject to European Union asset freezes, the notice said, and in screening customers that could be linked to terrorist financing. No penalty was issued due to their “subsequent compliance efforts,” the notice said.
The Trump administration warned Europe that anyone associated with the creation of the Instrument for Supporting Trade Exchanges, or INSTEX, could face U.S. sanctions, according to a May 29 report from Bloomberg. The report cites a May 7 letter from Treasury Department official Sigal Mandelker to INSTEX President Per Fischer. “I urge you to carefully consider the potential sanctions exposure of Instex,” Mandelker, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, wrote in the letter, according to Bloomberg. “Engaging in activities that run afoul of U.S. sanctions can result in severe consequences, including a loss of access to the U.S. financial system.”
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control submitted to Congress its annual report on assets held in the U.S. by terrorism-supporting countries and agencies. The report, released May 29, describes U.S. sanctions regimes and details the number of designated individuals, entities and countries designated by each regime as of Dec. 31, 2018. It also includes a list of blocked funds in the U.S. associated with the Specially Designated Global Terrorists, Specially Designated Terrorists and Foreign Terrorist Organization programs, as well as a similar list of blocked funds associated with three state sponsors of terrorism: Iran, Syria and North Korea.
In the May 27-28 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Travelex Ltd., a currency-exchange company, was fined about $12,600 for violating the European Union’s Egypt financial sanctions regime, the United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said in a May 24 press release. The company “dealt with funds” of about $250 “belonging to a person designated” by the sanctions, the OFSI said in an enforcement notice.