The Office of Foreign Assets Control Jan. 16 again extended a general license that continues to delay an exemption that would authorize certain transactions related to Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. General License 5N, which replaced GL 5M, now authorizes certain transactions with PdVSA involving an 8.5% bond on or after April 16. The previous license was set to allow those transactions to occur on or after Jan. 18.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on Jan. 2 amended a Russia-related general license to reflect the name change of VTB Bank (Europe) SE to OWH SE. The license, issued in March 2022, authorizes certain transactions involving Russia-based VTB Capital and its subsidiaries (see 2203020019).
The Bureau of Industry and Security published a new set of frequently asked questions for its recently updated semiconductor export controls (see 2310170055), offering guidance on the agency’s new export notification requirement, its controls on U.S. persons activities, the scope of its end-use controls, direction for electronic export information filers and more. The FAQs also give input on several export scenarios that may require a license and preview at least one export control revision that BIS plans to make.