China’s recently issued exclusion process for duties on more than 5,000 tariff lines of U.S. products (see 1905130043) shows it is prepared for a “long-term fight” and may be getting ready to “hunker down” in the trade war with the U.S., said Pete Mento, vice president for Crane Worldwide Logistics.
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.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security added 12 foreign entities or persons to BIS’s Entity List, according to a May 13 notice, including several entities in China. BIS said the additions include four entities with locations in China and Hong Kong, along with two other entities in China and one Pakistani entity and five entities or individuals in the United Arab Emirates. Each is now subject to specific license requirements “for the export, reexport, and/or in-country transfer of controlled items,” BIS said. The 12 "have been determined by the U.S. Government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests," the agency said in a separate notice.
There seems to be a growing interest in ways to evade U.S. sanctions and export controls, several experts said while speaking at a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on May 9. One panelist specifically pointed to China, which he said he expects to begin smuggling oil from Iran to avoid U.S. sanctions.
During a House hearing on China’s influence in Europe, several experts said the U.S. needs to more strongly cooperate with Europe against Chinese trading practices and economic influences, including on export controls and information sharing.
The U.S. trade war with China and the stalled revision of NAFTA have severely limited their export markets, filling their warehouses with unmovable products and slashing their revenues, farmers said during a House hearing on the state of the farm economy. The farmers called for a quick resolution of trade disputes with China and ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and suggested another market facilitation program similar to the relief package the Trump administration authorized in 2018 to aid farmers suffering from ongoing sparring over tariffs.
The U.S. seized a North Korean cargo ship for violating U.S. and international sanctions after it transported coal and “heavy machinery” and used U.S. banks for various transactions, the Department of Justice said in a May 9 press release.
The Trump administration on May 8 announced an executive order placing sanctions on Iran’s iron, steel, aluminum and copper sectors in what it said are the country’s “largest non-petroleum-related sources of export revenue."
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control’s recent publication of a sanctions compliance guide is the latest example of OFAC’s long-term effort to show companies what makes an effective compliance program, trade lawyers said. But the effort may also ultimately benefit the Treasury, according to one lawyer, by making it easier for the department to successfully prosecute compliance cases.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control reached a settlement of about $870,000 with a New York-based shipbroking company that OFAC said violated weapons-related sanctions five times. The company, MID-SHIP Group LLC, violated the Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators Sanctions Regulations by negotiating contracts among ship owners and charterers worth about $470,000 between February and November 2011, OFAC said May 2. The ships used in the transfers were owned by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), which was sanctioned by OFAC in 2008.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control published a 12-page guide on sanctions compliance for U.S. and foreign businesses, detailing what OFAC defines as effective compliance programs and outlining several “root causes” of sanctions violations. The guide, published May 2, delves into the level of compliance that OFAC expects from companies and how best to avoid sanctions violations. The guide covers five categories: management commitment, risk assessment, internal controls, testing and auditing, and training.