Former top officials in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative during the Trump and Biden administrations said there will be no return to a pre-Trumpian, pro-free trade philosophy, whether Joe Biden wins re-election this fall or Donald Trump returns to the White House in 2025.
A now-defunct Thai trading company will pay $20 million to settle charges that it violated Iran sanctions by selling high density polyethylene resin made in Iran to East Asian customers in U.S. dollars, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said April 19 in an enforcement release.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., announced late April 17 that she supports a newly modified House proposal that would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless China’s ByteDance divested the popular social media application.
Although all members of the House Ways and Means Committee supported a bill renewing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, the bill proceeded to the House floor on a split bipartisan vote of 17-24 as Democrats unsuccessfully called to include an extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers program, which lapsed in 2022.
The U.S. last week transferred thousands of weapons and rounds of ammunition to the Ukrainian armed forces that were confiscated from unflagged vessels en route to Yemen from Iran as part of a civil forfeiture action, DOJ announced on April 9. The shipment included "over 5,000 AK-47s, machine guns, sniper rifles, and RPG-7s, and over 500,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition."
The Bureau of Industry and Security added 11 parties to its Entity List this week for procuring items to support Iranian drone programs, China’s military modernization efforts or Russia’s military. The additions, outlined in a final rule released April 10 and effective April 11, include technology companies, logistics firms and one person based in either China, Russia or the United Arab Emirates.
The U.S. has no plans to remove sanctions from Iranian technology company ArvanCloud (see 2306020020) after it was delisted by the EU earlier this month, a State Department spokesperson said.
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Two Russian nationals living in Florida pleaded guilty this week to conspiring to violate the Export Control Reform Act by illegally shipping aviation technology to Russian end users, DOJ announced April 4.
Sanctions compliance professionals should familiarize themselves with several advisories authorities recently issued to help spot “dark fleet” vessels that seek to evade the price cap on Russian oil sales or oil sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, experts said April 4 during a webinar hosted by the Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists.