The United Nations Security Council removed 17 entities from its Iraq sanctions list, the council said in a June 24 press release. The entities are no longer subject to asset freezes. The council did not give reasons for the removals in its press release.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two Venezuelan government officials for fraud and corruption, Treasury said in a June 27 press release. OFAC is sanctioning Luis Alfredo Motta Dominguez, former minister of Electric Power and former president of the National Electric Corporation (CORPOELEC), and Eustiquio Jose Lugo Gomez, the deputy minister of Finance, Investments, and Strategic Alliances for the Ministry of Electric Power.
The advent of data privacy laws, such as Europe's General Data Protection Regulation, creates a "potential tension" with trade sanctions compliance, said Ramsey Kazem of Spark Compliance Consulting while at the American Association of Exporters and Importers Annual Conference on June 27. GDPR and other laws in various stages of implementation in U.S. states "tend to be very protective and restrictive on how you use personal data," he said. This may often conflict with sanctions laws, which require companies to do "more with the personal data that they possess in terms of screening their third-parties, screening their business partners, screening their customers," Kazem said. "So it's not difficult to see how the GDPR" and other data privacy restrictions "could conflict with, for example, U.S. sanctions laws." Further complicating the issue for companies is that "neither the U.S. nor the EU recognize the other's laws as a legitimate basis" for not complying, he said. Companies will therefore need to examine the potential risks created by such a conflict, Kazem said. "In some instances there may not be an easy answer and a company may be forced to choose between the lesser of two evils." As a result, data privacy considerations "must be at the table" while a company is developing a sanctions law compliance program, Kazem said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control amended the North Korea Sanctions Regulations to update references to “descriptive text” for certain entries on OFAC’s sanctions list, OFAC said in notice. The changes update references for entries on the Specially Designated Nationals List and List of Foreign Financial Institutions Subject to Correspondent Account or Payable-Through Account Sanctions. The notice is scheduled to be published June 28.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control amended a Venezuela-related General License and extended the expiration date of two Ukraine-related General Licenses, OFAC said in a June 26 notice. OFAC is amending Venezuela-related General License 13A to extend its expiration date to Oct. 25, 2019, the notice said. Both Ukraine-related General Licenses No. 13L and No. 15F are extended until Nov. 8, 2019, OFAC said. General License No. 15F also includes a new authorization “for certain safety-related activity,” the notice said.
Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security corrected one entry and removed eight others from the Unverified List after verifying and conducting an end-use check, BIS said in a notice. The correction changes the name of Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Technology to Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, BIS said. The eight removals from the list, all China-based, are: Beijing Bayi Space LCD Materials Technology Co., Hubei Flying Optical, Sunder Tools (Changxing) Technology, Wuhan Yifi Laser Equipment Co., Wuxi Hengling Technology Co., Xiamen Sanan Optoelectronics, Zhejiang Xizi Aviation and Zolix Instruments Co. The changes are scheduled to take effect June 27.
Canada imposed sanctions on nine Nicaraguan officials under the country’s Special Economic Measures Regulations, Canada said in a June 21 press release. Canada announced the sanctions in response to “gross and systematic human rights violations committed in Nicaragua,” it said in a separate release. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also recently announced sanctions on four Nicaraguan government officials (see 1906210041). In fact, the Global Affairs Canada release said Canada is taking its actions in “coordination with the United States.”
European Union entities are struggling with compliance ambiguity resulting from the U.S.’s reimposition of Iranian sanctions that conflict with EU laws, according to a June 21 report by the Financial Markets Law Committee, a United Kingdom-based legal association.
The Trump administration is continuing sanctions against North Korea, the White House said June 21, citing the risk it poses to U.S. national security. The White House pointed to North Korea’s “proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material,” the destabilizing actions of the country’s government that “imperil” U.S. trading partners in the region, and its pursuit of nuclear weapons. The sanctions were scheduled to expire June 26. The move extends an executive order from June 26, 2008, that declared a national emergency with regard to North Korea.
The European Union Council renewed sanctions against Russian people and entities for the “illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation,” according to a June 20 council decision. The sanctions ban all imports into the EU originating in Crimea or Sevastopol except if those goods were “granted a certificate of origin by the Government of Ukraine,” according to the original decision. The sanctions were renewed for one year until June 23, 2020.