The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced a $1.9 million settlement with a Connecticut-based industrial tool manufacturer and its China-based subsidiary after OFAC said the companies violated U.S.-imposed sanctions on Iran, according to a March 27 notice. The U.S. company -- Stanley Black & Decker -- and the Chinese subsidiary -- Jiangsu Guoqiang Tools Co. (GQ) -- attempted to export 23 “shipments of power tools and spare parts” worth more than $3 million to Iran from mid-2013 to the end of 2014, OFAC said.
Sanctions on North Korea have not been working, a United Nations Panel of Experts official told a House subcommittee on March 27, adding that North Korea has made no progress toward denuclearization.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 18-22 in case they were missed.
The Canada Border Services Agency plans to again push back the sunset date for legacy release options as part of the Single Window Initiative and Integrated Import Declaration transition, a CBSA spokesman said by email on March 26. Other Government Departments (OGD) service options pre-arrival review system (PARS), or SO 463, and release on minimum documentation (RMD), or SO 471, were set for decommissioning on April 1, 2019, CBSA announced last year. CBSA recently told members of the trade that the sunset date for OGD PARS (SO 463) and OGD RMD (SO 471) will now be in October.
It is unclear if Treasury's most recent North Korean sanctions will be enforced after reports surfaced on March 26 detailing opposing positions among the president, the White House administration and the Treasury Department.
The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs is expanding the access and breadth of Transitional Simplified Procedures that will be put into place if the U.K. leaves the European Union with no transition deal, as is currently set to happen April 11. TSP will now be available at all U.K. ports if the U.K. leaves without a deal (instead of just roll-on, roll-off ports), and will give importers a longer grace period before they have to begin filing customs declarations and paying duties for goods from the EU, HMRC said in a March 22 press release.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the State Department and the U.S. Coast Guard issued an update to its maritime petroleum shipping advisory to warn of deceptive shipping practices by Syria and highlight sanctions risks U.S. companies may face if trading with Syria or Iran. The update, a 10-page report that includes lists of ships that have “engaged in sanctionable conduct,” is aimed at “shipping companies, vessel owners, managers, operators, insurers, and financial institutions” who may face “significant U.S. sanctions risks.”
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a Venezuelan state-run bank and five related entities, OFAC said in a March 22 notice, increasing pressure on the Nicolas Maduro-led regime in potentially the most impactful move against the country since January, when the U.S. sanctioned Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A, the country's state-run oil company.
President Donald Trump said he has lifted sanctions on North Korea, with that announcement coming one day after the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced new sanctions involving the country's attempts at evading sanctions. The president's move, announced March 22 on his Twitter account, did not specify which U.S.-imposed sanctions on North Korea would be lifted. “It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!” According to the Associated Press, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a March 22 statement that Trump “likes Chairman Kim and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary.”
China’s reduction in value-added-tax rates will cover a broad scope of Chinese imports and will officially take effect April 1, according to a March 22 press release from China’s State Council. Taxpayers that are subject to the 16 percent VAT rate will see a drop to 13 percent, according to the release, while those subject to the 10 percent VAT rate will see a drop to 9 percent. In addition, the VAT rate for agricultural products will drop from 10 percent to 9 percent. The VAT changes also include an “extension in the scale of goods and services eligible for input tax deductions,” the release said.