Oleg Deripaska, a Russian businessman who was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018, sued the Treasury Department last week, alleging its sanctions rely on “unsubstantiated” allegations and have led to the “utter devastation” of his “wealth, reputation, and economic livelihood,” according to court documents. The suit, filed March 15, requests that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia order Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control to remove the sanctions. It names Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Department OFAC Director Andrea Gacki, the Treasury Department and OFAC as defendants.

The U.S., the European Union and Canada announced additional Russian sanctions stemming from Russia's actions in Ukraine, according to media reports and a March 15 announcement by the U.S. Treasury Department. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control added six people and eight entities to its Specially Designated Nationals List, OFAC said in a notice, while Canada reportedly imposed sanctions on 114 people and 15 entities and the EU targeted eight security service officials and military commanders. Individuals or companies who trade with any of the blocked people or entities may be penalized under U.S. sanctions.

The United Kingdom Parliament voted on March 14 to seek a delay of the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union. The EU still has to approve the extension of Article 50, and the time frame of the departure is still to be determined, though it may be lengthy if the U.K. does not adopt the deal it negotiated with the EU, as appears likely after it failed twice in the U.K. Parliament in recent months.

The Mexican government is considering adding new products to a list of U.S. goods that face higher tariffs in response to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum. During a March 6 meeting "of the Foreign Trade Commission of the Mexican Senate, Luz Maria de la Mora-Sanchez, Foreign Trade Undersecretary of Mexico’s Ministry of Economy, announced that the Mexican government is planning to include additional items on its list of U.S. products subject to retaliatory measures," law firm Thompson Hine said in a blog post. The additional goods may be finalized by April, Thompson Hine said.

The U.K. Parliament voted March 13 that the U.K. should not leave the European Union without a deal, paving the way for another vote that could seek to delay that departure beyond the March 29 deadline. Although the vote is not legally binding, it formally signaled Parliament’s opposition to a no-deal Brexit -- the possibility of the U.K. leaving the EU without an agreed framework for cross-border transactions. The measure passed 321-278. A March 14 vote on another amendment on whether to delay Brexit is expected, according to reports.

If the United Kingdom crashes out of the European Union in 17 days, it has a plan on what its tariff schedule will be, but John Dickerman, head of the Washington office of the Confederation of British Industries, said that there's no answer on who will be ready to take the manifest information from exporters the day after Brexit. "That's a huge challenge," he said.

The United Kingdom would temporarily set tariffs at zero for nearly 90 percent of imported goods should it leave the European Union with no transition deal in place, the U.K. Department for International Trade said in a March 13 press release announcing a draft tariff and customs scheme in the run-up to a vote in Parliament on whether to leave with no deal.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 5-8 in case they were missed.

A State Department policy change that lifts statutory debarments on companies that have export privileges still banned is a practical step toward rewarding past violators who aren't yet ready for complete reinstatement, lawyers say. The policy change, announced in a March 4 notice, came as State lifted a debarment against Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Instrument Company (RMI) -- stemming from 2010 violations of the Arms Export Control Act -- without reinstating RMI’s export privileges.

A transition deal on the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union failed for a second time in the U.K. Parliament on March 12, setting up a series of votes on whether to leave the EU with no deal and whether to delay Brexit, according to a statement following the vote from U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May.