The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week published new reporting requirements for banks and other financial institutions under a law that allows the U.S. to use certain frozen Russian assets to help support and rebuild Ukraine.
Ian Cohen
Ian Cohen, Deputy Managing Editor, is a reporter with Export Compliance Daily and its sister publications International Trade Today and Trade Law Daily, where he covers export controls, sanctions and international trade issues. He previously worked as a local government reporter in South Florida. Ian graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Florida in 2017 and lives in Washington, D.C. He joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2019.
A July proposal to add nearly 60 military bases to the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (see 2407090003) shows that sensitive real estate issues are “top of mind” for the committee, said Matt Miller, an executive with data discovery firm HaystackID.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is expanding its export controls to make more items subject to license requirements under its Iran foreign direct product rule, increasing its Iran-related restrictions under the Export Administration Regulations. The final rule, which was released July 24 but took effect July 23, implements certain provisions in the wide-ranging national security bill President Joe Biden signed into law in April (see 2404240043).
Stopping U.S. firms from participating in RISC-V, an open-source semiconductor architecture that policymakers fear China will use to evade export controls, would only hurt American innovation and competitiveness, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said this month.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The EU is considering entities to be subject to sanctions if they are owned 50% or more by another sanctioned entity or party, a move that aligns the bloc with the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control’s 50% rule. The announcement is a change from the EU’s previous position on the ownership test threshold, which had previously extended asset freezes to entities only if they were owned more than 50% by a sanctioned party, a law firm said this week.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. saw a spike in enforcement activity in 2023, fining four parties for breaching mitigation agreements and investigating several others for failing to comply with CFIUS mandatory filing requirements, the committee said in an annual report released July 23.
After U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan last week said the Biden administration is preparing new sanctions against Chinese entities, including possibly financial institutions, for supporting Russia's military, China said it “firmly rejects all kinds of illicit unilateral sanctions” that the U.S. may be considering.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control plans to extend its sanctions-related recordkeeping requirements to match a similar expansion of the U.S. statute of limitations for sanctions violations that was signed into law earlier this year (see 2404290071).
The Federal Maritime Commission this week released its final rule on unreasonable carrier conduct, the last step in the FMC’s nearly two-year campaign of crafting regulations to address ocean carriers that unfairly refuse vessel or cargo space to shippers.