Jacob Lew, a former chief of staff and Treasury secretary under President Barack Obama, called the Trump administration's approach to trade and sanctions “troubling,” saying the administration is placing unneeded stress on U.S. allies and damaging the effectiveness of U.S. foreign policy. Speaking April 30 at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think-tank focused on national security, Lew was critical of Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, was skeptical of the president’s “brute force” approach to trade deals and pointed to “worrisome trends” that he said will lead to U.S. undermining its own sanctions. Among those trends, Lew said, are “ambiguous diplomatic objectives, growing unpredictability, increased unilateral action” and a “narrow focus on isolated policies with less regard for the broader context.”
It's unclear how North Korean leader Kim Jong Un got the armored Mercedes-Maybach limousines made by Daimler that Kim used for several recent meetings with international leaders, a spokesman for the company said. In an April 29 email, a Daimler spokesman said the company has a “comprehensive export control process” to “prevent” all sales to North Korea. “We have no indication how those vehicles have come to the use of” North Korea, he said. Exports of luxury goods to North Korea are banned under United Nations sanctions, and sanctions imposed by the U.S. allow the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to designate any person who “engages in a significant export to or import from North Korea,” according to the Treasury.
The European Council renewed its sanctions on Myanmar/Burma until April 30, 2020, according to an April 29 press release from the European Union. The sanctions place a ban on exporting dual-use goods to the country and prohibit dealing in “arms and equipment that can be used for internal repression,” the release said, as well as equipment for “monitoring communications” and “military cooperation” with the Myanmar Armed Forces. The sanctions also cover 14 “high-ranking officials” in the Myanmar military who committed “serious human rights violations,” the council said.
The Aerospace Industries Association asked the Commerce Department for more time before it sets space-related export control regulations, in order to allow for its member companies to have "open discussions with the government," in comments filed in a Bureau of Industry and Security proposed rulemaking regarding the Commerce Control List for munitions. The trade group said it lacked an "industry consensus" on multiple changes being considered. The comments were solicited by State and Commerce after both requested public comments on a proposal for items listed on the U.S. Munitions List in categories IV and XV: launch vehicles and spacecraft. The proposal is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to revive the National Space Council and review space-related export controls (see 1904180014). Comments were due April 22
In the April 26 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Rep. Vern Buchanan, the Florida Republican who's ranking member of the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, is co-sponsoring a bill that would impose sanctions on companies that make and send fentanyl to the U.S. Buchanan, joined by Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., introduced the bill April 10. The bill, H.R. 2226, notes that the Treasury Department used the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act to sanction a synthetic opioid trafficker in April 2018, but says "precision economic and financial sanctions policy tools are needed to address the flow of synthetic opioids." The bill is a companion to a bipartisan Senate bill introduced earlier in the month by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. (see 1904040028). It would require the administration to publicly identify the companies that are selling fentanyl to dealers, bar imports of any kind from those companies, freeze their assets, deny visas to its officials and cut them off from the U.S. banking system. Congress would dedicate $600 million for investigations to uncover which companies are responsible.
The Automated Export System Trade Interface Requirements was updated to reflect the State Department's changes involving International Traffic in Arms Regulations for U.S. government transfers (see 1904180024), CBP said in a CSMS message.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two Venezuelan officials who it called “corrupt [Nicolas] Maduro insiders,” according to an April 26 press release. OFAC added Jorge Alberto Arreaza Montserrat, Venezuela’s minister of Foreign Affairs, and Carol Bealexis Padilla de Arretureta, a Venezuelan court judge, to the Specially Designated Nationals List.
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control is issuing regulations for sanctions surrounding foreign interference in U.S. elections, according to an April 26 notice. The regulations require the director of national intelligence to investigate any information that points to the possibility of foreign interference within 45 days after the conclusion of U.S. elections and recommend “remedial actions” for the U.S. government to take, other than sanctions. The regulations also list provisions for sanctioning those involved in election interference, including blocking any U.S.-related “property and interest.”
President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. will not ratify the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty. Trump made the announcement during a speech at a National Rifle Association of America event on April 26. The White House said the treaty "cannot achieve its chief objective of addressing irresponsible arms transfers if these major arms exporters" -- including Russia and China -- "are not subject to it at all." The U.S. signed onto the treaty in 2013, but it was never ratified by the Senate as required. "The United States export controls have long been considered the gold standard for engaging in responsible arms trading and we will continue to use them under our own laws," the White House said.