Imports into the EU of birch and other types of plywood have proven to be a “major source of revenue” for Russia and Belarus and are frequently being used to evade EU sanctions, the European Commission said in a sanctions alert last week.
The European Commission issued updated guidance last week to clarify the exemptions for the temporary storage of Russian crude oil and petroleum products in EU free trade zones.
The Federal Maritime Commission has asked a group of major ocean shipping carriers to provide it with more information about an amendment to an agreement that would allow them to participate in the New York Shipping Exchange index governing board, “which shall discuss and agree on all aspects of the development, implementation, modification and auditing of container freight indices, as produced by NYSHEX,” the FMC said in a notice released March 14. The commission said its notice prevented “the proposed amendment to this agreement from becoming effective as originally scheduled” on March 12. The parties to the agreement are carriers CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, COSCO Shipping Lines, COSCO Shipping Co., HMM, Maersk, and Ocean Network Express.
Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., reintroduced a bill March 11 to create a federal task force to coordinate sanctions enforcement and other efforts against fentanyl traffickers.
Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., reintroduced a bill March 11 to prohibit most private-sector retirement plans from investing in companies based in “foreign adversary” countries, including China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
The EU and Canada announced retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. this week, targeting billions of dollars' worth of American exports in response to what they said were unjustified global 25% steel and aluminum duties imposed by the Trump administration. Other nations also criticized the U.S. tariffs as they mulled countermeasures of their own.
The European Commission last week released updated preferential rules of origin guidance, including new guidelines for how companies and member states should verify proof of origin (Section C). The commission said the section “addresses the processes for requests exchanged between EU Member States and third countries, as well as clarifications on importer’s knowledge.”
The U.K. removed one entry from its Russia sanctions list on Feb. 26, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said in a notice. Francois Mauron, a Swiss national, was removed after originally being sanctioned for working as a director for an entity conducting business in the Russian energy sector.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned six companies based in mainland China and Hong Kong that have helped to supply drone parts to sanctioned Iranian firms. OFAC said the companies “facilitate the purchase and shipment of key unmanned aerial vehicle components to Pishtazan Kavosh Gostar Boshra, sanctioned in 2019, and its subsidiary Narin Sepehr Mobin Isatis, which supply Iran’s UAV and ballistic missile programs.
Ray Hunt, an Alabama resident and business owner, was sentenced this week to five years in prison after pleading guilty in July to conspiring to illegally export U.S.-origin goods to Iran, DOJ announced. The agency said Hunt conspired to ship parts used in the oil and gas industry to Iran and submitted false export information to the U.S. government (see 2211300011). He worked around U.S. restrictions by using third-party transshipment companies in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, routing payments through UAE banks, and lying to shipping companies about how much the exports were worth to stop them from filing export information in the Automated Export System.