The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control extended the expiration date of two general licenses related to GAZ Group, allowing certain transactions involving the sanctioned company until July 6, 2019, OFAC said in March 6 notice. The previous expiration date, issued in a Jan. 16 notice, was March 7. The sanctions against GAZ Group are Ukraine-related, and the company was designated as an “oligarch-owned” entity after OFAC said in a April 2018 notice that the company was owned or controlled by “Russian Machines” and oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who also is identified as having a large stake in Russian aluminum producer Rusal. The notice said GAZ Group is Russia’s “leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles.”
The State Department seeks comments by May 7 on a proposed change to its procedures for submitting voluntary disclosures of violations of the Arms Export Control Act. “Historically, respondents to this information collection submitted their disclosures to [the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC)] in writing via hard copy documentation. However, as part of an IT modernization project designed to streamline the collection and use of information by DDTC, a discrete form has been developed for the submission of voluntary disclosures. This will allow both DDTC and respondents submitting a disclosure to more easily track submissions,” it said. As it sends the new information collection procedure to OMB for approval, State seeks comments on whether the information collection is necessary, how it can be improved, and how the burden on industry can be reduced.
The Bureau of Industry and Security and the State Department seek comments by April 22 to inform its review of recently revised export controls on launch vehicles and spacecraft, they said in two separate notices. Conducted as part of their work on the National Space Council, the agencies seek input on how to streamline controls for the commercial space industry, particularly in light of recent moves from U.S. Munitions List Categories IV and XV to the dual use Commerce Control List.
CBP is starting to automate filings on used-car exports, a move that will help it more efficiently regulate an industry that has been “heavily infiltrated” by international criminal organizations, said Jim Swanson, director of CBP’s cargo and conveyance security and controls division. Swanson said CBP will move from a paper-based to an electronic-based filing system for used-car exports, which will allow the agency to verify or prohibit certain exports more quickly and accurately, abandoning an old method that sometimes resulted in original car titles getting lost.
The Mexico Tax Administration Service announced that it has added a functionality in its VUCEM single window to allow downloads in PDF format of receipts of electronic submission of import documentation. Available in the “Consulta Documento Digitalizado” section, the new functionality is available as of March 6, SAT said. Electronic document receipts are required as part of “electronic files” of import and export documentation that must be maintained by importers, exporters and customs agents in Mexico under a regulation that took effect Dec. 22, 2018.
Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., said in a letter on March 5 that she is seeking support from other members for her bill that will “maintain current firearm export policies” instead of adopting a proposal by the Trump administration that she said would create less oversight for gun exports. The administration's proposal, Torres wrote, would transfer oversight for firearms exports from the Department of State to the Department of Commerce, which would not require American gun and ammunition manufacturers to register with the State Department. “Firearms sales would be approved with little to no congressional oversight,” wrote Torres, who introduced the Prevent Crime and Terrorism Act that she said would nix the proposal. “If we are not careful, some of those firearms could end up in the hands of dictators, terrorists, and narco-traffickers.”
The Bureau of Industry Security seeks comments on the burden on importers from its information collections related to license exceptions and exclusions for products subject to Export Administration Regulation export controls, it said. The agency is set to request approval from the Office of Management and Budget for these information collection requirements, which may include reporting or record-keeping requirements. Comments on the requirements and BIS's estimate of their burden on importers are due May 6.
The U.S. plans to increase sanctions on Iran by targeting certain foreign entities doing business with the country, potentially creating more compliance issues for American companies, according to Steven Brotherton, principal at KPMG. Speaking at a KPMG export controls information event, Brotherton said he was told in a recent meeting with an official from the Department of State’s Counter Threat Finance and Sanctions sector that the U.S. administration will be doing “a number of things to really ratchet up the sanctions on Iran.”
A recent fine on a U.S. company while simultaneously penalizing the manager of the company's foreign subsidiary after both violated sanctions on Iran seems reflective of the increasingly aggressive nature and number of U.S. enforcement actions taken on sanctions violations during the last few months, according to several Washington trade lawyers. The fine was called “unprecedented” in early February by the Department of the Treasury. After distributing just one penalty through the first eight months of 2018, the Office of Foreign Assets Control doled out six penalties during the last four months of 2018, according to the office's records. And two months through 2019, OFAC already has administered four penalties worth more than $7 million, according to the agency, including a $5.5 million penalty against the German subsidiary of an Illinois-based company on Feb. 14.
In the March 5 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted: