Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 18-22 in case they were missed.
It is unclear if Treasury's most recent North Korean sanctions will be enforced after reports surfaced on March 26 detailing opposing positions among the president, the White House administration and the Treasury Department.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the State Department and the U.S. Coast Guard issued an update to its maritime petroleum shipping advisory to warn of deceptive shipping practices by Syria and highlight sanctions risks U.S. companies may face if trading with Syria or Iran. The update, a 10-page report that includes lists of ships that have “engaged in sanctionable conduct,” is aimed at “shipping companies, vessel owners, managers, operators, insurers, and financial institutions” who may face “significant U.S. sanctions risks.”
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a Venezuelan state-run bank and five related entities, OFAC said in a March 22 notice, increasing pressure on the Nicolas Maduro-led regime in potentially the most impactful move against the country since January, when the U.S. sanctioned Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A, the country's state-run oil company.
In the March 22 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Michael Stashchyshyn, who owned a freight forwarder company in Parsippany, New Jersey, pleaded guilty March 20 to one charge of "conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act," the Justice Department said in a March 21 news release. "In connection with the guilty plea, the court was advised that Stashchyshyn conspired with others to export night sighting equipment, firearm parts, and ammunition to Ukraine without the requisite license issued by the State Department," said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The items were bought in the U.S. and sent to Stashchyshyn, who "then shipped the items to an individual in Ukraine in violation of U.S. law and regulations. The items shipped are contained on the Federal Munitions List and are controlled by the International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) regulations. They are illegal to ship without a license from the State Department, which the defendant and his co-conspirators did not have."
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control updated its Specially Designated Nationals List with several Iran-related designations and non-proliferation designations, OFAC said in a March 22 notice. The additions include 14 individuals and 17 entities, according to the notice, all of which have connections to Iran.
President Donald Trump said he has lifted sanctions on North Korea, with that announcement coming one day after the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced new sanctions involving the country's attempts at evading sanctions. The president's move, announced March 22 on his Twitter account, did not specify which U.S.-imposed sanctions on North Korea would be lifted. “It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!” According to the Associated Press, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a March 22 statement that Trump “likes Chairman Kim and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary.”
The European Union is implementing new criteria for screening foreign investment in the EU that includes effects on critical technologies and dual-use items defined in EU export control regulations, it said in a notice issued March 21. The regulation mirrors U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) requirements currently being implemented that relate to “emerging technologies” as defined in Bureau of Industry and Security export control regulations. Specific technologies named in the new EU regulation include artificial intelligence, robotics, semiconductors, cybersecurity, aerospace, defence, energy storage, quantum and nuclear technologies as well as nanotechnologies and biotechnologies.
Multiple users reported, starting last month, issues with downloading data files on sanctions lists from the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control website after OFAC said it made changes regarding its HTTP request methods, the agency said in a March 20 notice. OFAC said the changes affected users that “leverage command line connections” to the Treasury’s website. Those who download OFAC sanctions data files “manually via browser” are not be impacted by the change, according to the notice. The change allows for users to only request sanctions data files via HTTP using GET commands, as opposed to both GET and POST commands, OFAC said. The agency said the change is permanent and was “made to improve the security for public file repositories.” The agency said questions about the change should be emailed to O_F_A_C@treasury.gov; OFAC’s technical support hotline is at 1-800-540-6322 (menu option 8).