President Donald Trump on June 30 signed an executive order to remove certain financial sanctions against Syria and authorize the "relaxation" of export controls against the country, part of broader effort to support Syria's "path to stability and peace," the White House said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week renewed a Russia-related general license that authorizes certain civil nuclear energy-related transactions with Russian entities. General License 115B, which replaces 115A, authorizes those transactions with Gazprombank and other financial institutions through 12:01 a.m. EST Dec. 19. The license was scheduled to expire June 30. OFAC also updated several FAQs to reflect the renewal.
The U.S. last week sanctioned four people, 12 entities, and two vessels that have imported oil and other goods for the Houthis in what was the “single largest action” taken by the Office of Foreign Assets Control against the Yemen-based designated terror group. OFAC said the designations target Houthi front companies, their owners, and other “key” operatives that generate revenue for the group through sales of oil and other commodities on Yemen’s black market and through smuggling at Houthi-controlled ports.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on June 20 again extended a general license that continues to delay an exemption that would authorize certain transactions related to Petroleos de Venezuela, Venezuela’s state-owned energy company. General License 5S, which replaced GL 5R, now authorizes certain transactions with PdVSA involving an 8.5% bond on or after Dec. 20. The previous license was set to allow those transactions to occur on or after July 3.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week renewed a Russia-related general license that authorizes certain transactions related to crude oil originating from the Sakhalin-2 project, an oil and gas development business based in Russia, as long as the Sakhalin-2 byproduct is solely for importation into Japan. General License 55D, which replaces 55C (see 2411210020), authorizes those transactions through Dec. 19. The license was scheduled to expire June 28.
Despite the Trump administration easing certain sanctions against Syria, companies should still be carrying out careful due diligence and should be aware of other legal risks they could face before doing any business in the country, industry advisers said this week.
The U.K. last week updated a general license authorizing insolvency-related payments and activities involving Russian aircraft leasing companies GTLK Europe and GTLK Capital. The changes add new definitions for "notes, Noteholders, Trustee, Relevant non-UK Institution, UK Prohibited Persons and UK Prohibited Persons Account," clarified that certain funds must be held in frozen accounts, revised a notification requirement and a record-keeping requirement, and added a new reporting requirement.
Trade enforcement under President Donald Trump could "look a little different" than how the federal government has previously acted because of how the DOJ seems now to want to focus on holding individuals accountable, as opposed to corporations, according to a trade lawyer speaking during a June 6 webinar hosted by the Massachusetts Export Center.
The U.S. this week sanctioned four International Criminal Court judges and issued several general licenses to authorize certain transactions with those judges or with the ICC that otherwise would be blocked by the Trump administration’s sanctions authorities against the judicial body (see 2502070022).
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