The European Union removed former Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi from its Libya sanction regime, the European Council said. Originally sanctioned in 2011 for the alleged suppression of demonstrators and role in Moammar Gadhafi's government, al-Mahmoudi was delisted "in view of the situation in Libya."
Two new agencies, the Council for Leather Exports and Udaipur Chamber of Commerce & Industry, are now able to issue Non-Preferential Certificates of Origin, India's Directorate-General of Foreign Trade said. CLE is located in the Tamil Nadu state and the UCCI is in Rajasthan. The DGFT's notice also updated the name and contact information for one of the existing authorized agencies: Marathwada Industries Association, which changed its name to the Chamber of Marathwada Industries and Agriculture.
Dali Bagrou, of Alpharetta, Georgia, and owner of World Mining and Oil Supply, was sentenced to 51 months in prison accompanied by three years of supervised release for his role in a scheme to evade U.S. national security laws, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia said. World Mining was sentenced to five years' probation.
The Treasury Department is considering extending the deadline by which three U.S. allies must meet certain criteria to remain eligible for a foreign investment review exemption, the agency said last week. Treasury’s proposed rule would extend the deadline for one year to give Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom more time to cement their positions as excepted foreign states and excepted real estate foreign states, which excludes them from certain screening requirements by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. Comments on the proposal are due Dec. 15.
India updated the item description for peptones to include collagen peptides of marine, bovine or poultry origin, the Directorate-General of Foreign Trade said. The Nov. 8 notification applies to HS Code 35040010 at Serial No. 173. The full item description now reads "Peptones including Collagen Peptides of marine or bovine or Poultry origin (also referred to as Collagen, Collagen Hydrolysate, Hydrolysed Collagen or Hydrolysed Gelatin) and Fish Protein."
A United Arab Emirates bank violated the U.S.’s now-repealed Sudanese Sanctions Regulations when it illegally processed more than 1,700 payments for Sudanese banks, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said Nov. 9. The bank, Mashreqbank psc, was issued a “finding of violation” by OFAC instead of a fine, partly because the bank voluntarily entered into a “retroactive statute of limitations waiver agreement,” which allowed OFAC to charge Mashreq with the sanctions violations.
Vietnam's Hai Phong Customs Department fined a company over $7,000 for importing goods labeled with false country of origin information, the state-run publication CustomsNews said. The goods were declared as glass door accessories originating in China. After physical inspection, the local customs department found 1,000 locks used in glass doors, which the company had declared as glass door lock clamps. The customs department forced the company to reexport the goods.
Norbert Basengezi Katintima, former vice president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), launched a case Nov. 5 at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to challenge his spot on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. Katintima is challenging the decision made by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to deny his delisting application. The former CENI official says that the circumstances that contributed to his original listing have changed, necessitating his removal from the list (Norbert Basengezi Katintima v. Bradley Smith, et al., D.D.C. #21-02917).
A European Union official said that even once the bloc passes its Carbon Border Adjustment Measure, "that definitely doesn’t preclude joint work on international coordination" on preventing manufacturing from moving to countries that aren't as ambitious in fighting climate change.
New draft text of Congress’ Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation bill includes a tax credit to incentivize advanced semiconductor manufacturing, which would help “strengthen” U.S. supply chains, the Semiconductor Industry Association said Oct. 28. The incentive, included in the reconciliation package released by congressional Democrats Oct. 28, would create an investment tax credit of up to 25% for certain “advanced manufacturing facilities” and a tax credit for certain “eligible components.” The credit would specifically be available for “property for the manufacturing of semiconductors and semiconductor tooling equipment” that begins construction before 2027. The package hasn’t yet received a vote.