House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., said July 22 that the U.S. needs to impose stronger export controls and outbound investment restrictions on China to protect its own national security.
The U.K. on July 21 sanctioned United Arab Emirates-based companies Intershipping Services and Litasco Middle East DMCC for doing business involving the Russian energy sector. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation also issued a new general license that authorizes certain transactions with Intershipping Services involving ships owned by the government of Gabon.
The U.K. saw an uptick in voluntary disclosures and penalties for export violations last year along with a rise in the percentage of first-time exporters that weren’t fully compliant with export control regulations, it said in its strategic export controls annual report released this month. The country also said it’s hoping to improve its export licensing process to reduce wait times.
The Senate Appropriations Committee’s newly released report on the FY 2026 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill (see 2507170053 and 2507100053) calls for the Bureau of Industry and Security to take several actions to inform lawmakers, including writing a report on international efforts to harmonize export controls on items that could aid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested the White House may be in favor of a bill that would authorize new sanctions and tariffs against Russia’s supporters, and he urged the EU to put in place similar measures.
The latest EU sanctions package against Russia, adopted last week, lowers the price cap on Russian oil, introduces more import and export restrictions and designates a range of vessels and companies helping Russia move energy products and evade sanctions.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., introduced a bill July 16 that would update the conditions for lifting sanctions in the Caeser Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019.
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., announced July 17 that he has filed a discharge petition to force House floor consideration of his bill to increase sanctions and export controls on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The U.K. issued a new Russian sanctions general license allowing non-designated parties who have made investments through sanctioned brokers to "transfer their funds to a non-designated broker." The license applies when the only sanctioned party involved is the broker. Under the license, an "Asset Holding Institution" can take steps to transfer any funds held by a central securities depository that the asset-holding institution "reasonably considers" are "investment assets of that" non-sanctioned account holder and relate to investment made by the non-sanctioned account holder with the sanctioned broker before it became sanctioned.
Seth Bailey, the State Department’s director for Korean and Mongolian Affairs, briefed U.N. member states last week on the first report of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, the group formed last year by the U.S. and 10 of its close allies to report on North Korea-related sanctions evasion (see 2502210005 and 2506050046). Bailey outlined “evidence” of North Korean arms and materiel transfers to Russia, Russian transfers of military technology to North Korea, and Russian training of North Korean troops in Russia, the State Department said. Bailey added that the monitoring team plans to continue publishing reports on North Korea’s “sanctions violations across a range of topics.”