The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed a new rule this week that it said will “explicitly require” banks and other financial institutions to have “effective, risk-based, and reasonably designed“ compliance programs to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. The agency’s proposal also would require them to put in place a risk assessment process and meet other “minimum” rules for their compliance programs.
Although China isn’t yet directly shipping weapons and other armaments to Russia’s military, Beijing is “making, in effect, investments in Russia's defense industrial base in ways that are allowing it to continue” its war against Ukraine, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking during a July 1 event hosted by the Brookings Institution. He said 70% of the machine tools and 90% of the microelectronics being imported by Russia are coming from China.
USDA is warning U.S. exporters to Hong Kong to make sure their goods’ health certificates are properly formatted, after a recent shipment of frozen confectionary to Hong Kong was almost rejected. The agency said the shipment had “an erroneously formatted health certificate.” U.S. exporters should “work with importers in Hong Kong to ensure that a properly formatted health certification is included when requesting an import license application,” USDA said.
The State Department approved two possible military sales to Taiwan, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said last week. One sale includes $300 million worth of "ALTIUS 600M-V Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" and related equipment. The other sale is for a $60.2 million Switchblade 300 Anti-Personnel and Anti-Armor Loitering Missile System and related equipment. The principal contractors will be Anduril and AeroVironment, respectively.
The State Department recently launched an informal, voluntary network for the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) security partnership to share information with stakeholders who are outside the traditional defense industry, an agency official said June 21.
The White House should do more to remove foreign trade barriers for U.S. services exports, enforce existing trade services agreements and take other steps to help the American services export industry, the President’s Export Council said in a letter earlier this month. The letter, written by council chair Mark Ein, said American services exports are “often subject to market access restrictions and discriminatory treatment as governments seek to favor their own services companies, and current “impediments are already significant and growing.”
The State Department approved a possible military sale to the Netherlands worth about $678 million, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said June 13. The sale includes “Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles-Extended Range” and related equipment, and the principal contractor will be RTX Corp.
The State Department approved a potential $1.94 billion military sale to Norway, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said June 11. The sale includes “AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles” and related equipment, and the principal contractor will be RTX Corp.
The State Department has renewed the charter of its Defense Trade Advisory Group (DTAG) for two years, the agency announced June 14. The DTAG advises the department on issues involving its defense trade regulations.
The Bureau of Industry and Security imposed a $285,000 civil penalty on Sapphire Havacilik San Ltd. to resolve allegations that the Turkey-based company flew a U.S.-origin Gulfstream aircraft on private charter flights into Russia without a required BIS reexport license, the agency announced June 13. The flights occurred in October 2023 and January 2024 and were arranged by Russian nationals.