The U.S. should quickly move forward with new secondary sanctions against supporters of Russia, government leaders and think tank officials said this week, and they urged the EU to do more to hold Beijing accountable for helping Russia evade sanctions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is considering adding a new online portal for sanctioned people and parties to ask to be removed from the agency's Specially Designated Nationals List and other OFAC restricted party lists.
An Israeli telecommunications and cybersecurity technology company told the Bureau of Industry and Security that it may have violated export controls against Russia and Belarus.
Enacting two pending export control bills into law could help keep U.S. AI technology out of China’s hands, an advocacy group representative told the House Select Committee on China June 25.
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Former U.S. and U.K. national security officials warned the British government about aligning too closely with a decoupling strategy toward China, saying this week that the U.K. should carefully manage sensitive trade issues but not in a way that strains economic ties with Beijing.
President Donald Trump appeared to signal June 24 that the U.S. no longer will sanction China for purchases of Iranian oil.
A large U.S. sanctions penalty earlier this month is a sign of the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s rising compliance expectations for investment firms, accountants, wealth advisers and other financial “gatekeepers,” particularly if they’re aware that funds may be indirectly tied to a sanctioned person, law firms said. The fine, which was the largest OFAC penalty since 2023, also could begin a trend of tougher enforcement on those gatekeepers, law firms said, especially if they rely on wrong legal advice or don’t fully cooperate with OFAC.
Efforts to prevent sanctions evasion will grow “increasingly difficult” in the coming years, especially as evaders make better use of emerging technologies and find new loopholes in trade regulations, the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force warned countries and companies this month.
As the Bureau of Industry and Security asks for more funding from Congress to improve its enforcement and technological capabilities, the agency could benefit from more information about controlled exports leaving third countries, said Matt Borman, a former senior BIS official. He also stressed the importance of the U.S. carefully calibrating any new export controls, and said its current semiconductors restrictions have successfully slowed China from producing the most advanced chips.