Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Louis Sola this week applauded the Panama Maritime Authority for recently removing from its registry more than 100 vessels sanctioned by the U.S. and other governments, saying the move is helping to pressure Iran and other nations operating so-called shadow fleets. He also said the FMC may investigate other registries that haven’t removed those ships.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company may face a fine of up to $1 billion or more if the Commerce Department determines it violated U.S. export control laws against Huawei, Reuters reported April 8. The Bureau of Industry and Security has reportedly been investigating the chip company after one of its chips was found in a Huawei product (see 2411120011 and 2410230019), and Reuters said Commerce could reach a $1 billion penalty because export control regulations allow the agency to issue a fine of up to twice the value of transactions that violate the rules. Reuters said it "could not determine how the Trump administration will proceed with TSMC or when the matter would be resolved."
Sens. John Curtis, R-Utah, and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced a bill April 8 that would require the administration to write a report to Congress on Hong Kong’s role in export control and sanctions evasion.
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The U.S. executive branch has “really good authorities” to restrict exports of advanced computing chips but should improve how it wields them to prevent China from exploiting loopholes, a technology policy researcher told a congressional panel April 8.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., reintroduced a bill April 7 that aims to close a loophole that has allowed China to use cloud service providers to access advanced U.S. computing chips remotely.
Reps. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and John James, R-Mich., introduced a bill April 3 that would direct the administration to identify South African government officials and African National Congress leaders who should be sanctioned for human rights abuses or corruption.
Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Wash., reintroduced a bill April 3 that would require an annual report to Congress on sanctions imposed under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, a 2020 law that aims to address the wrongful detainment of U.S. nationals abroad.
A new license issued this week by the Office of Foreign Assets Control authorizes payments of certain taxes, fees, import duties, licenses, certifications and other similar transactions involving the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation that would normally be blocked under Directive 4 of Executive Order 14024. General License 13M authorizes those transactions through 12:01 a.m. EDT July 9 as long as they are “ordinarily incident and necessary to the day-to-day operations in the Russian Federation of such U.S. persons or entities.”
The European Commission this week updated its Syria-related sanctions guidance to clarify what types of activities with the country are permitted after the EU in February suspended certain restrictions against Syria (see 2502240010). The guidance also addresses how EU companies should approach the “interplay between EU sanctions and US sanctions” against Syria, saying that EU parties “are not required to comply with US sanctions. They are only required to comply with EU sanctions.” It added that U.S. sanctions “might be intended to produce effects beyond the US territory and seek to regulate the behaviour of EU economic operators that have no significant connection to the US,” but the EU doesn’t recognize the “extra-territorial application of laws adopted by third countries and considers such application to be contrary to international law.”