The U.S. sanctioned three entities it said are helping to fund the ongoing conflict in Sudan between the country’s two warring groups: the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. The designations, announced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control Jan. 31, target Alkhaleej Bank Co. Ltd. and Al-Fakher Advanced Works Co. Ltd., two companies controlled by the RSF, and Zadna International Co. for Development Ltd., which acts as a “vehicle for military money-laundering” for the SAF.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned two companies with ties to the Myanmar military along with four of their “cronies” for helping the regime fund itself. The designations were announced days after the U.S. updated its Myanmar business advisory (see 2401300010) and mark the three-year anniversary of the country’s military coup, which sparked multiple rounds of sanctions and export controls by the U.S. and its allies (see 2310310028, 2306210017, 2303240024 and 2107020003).
The U.S. this week sanctioned three entities and one person for providing “critical” funding to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and Hezbollah financial network, including by generating hundreds of millions of dollars from sales of Iranian commodities to the Syrian government and elsewhere.
The U.S. and the EU are continuing to prioritize export control and sanctions enforcement against Russia, said Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission’s top trade official, and he suggested the EU may soon issue penalties against companies for evading the bloc’s sanctions. He also said the two sides are working on ways they can both put in place new export controls proposed at consensus-based multilateral regimes, such as the Wassenaar Arrangement, even if they are blocked by Russia.
The U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation this week amended the sanctions entry for Muhammad Fadl Abd al-Nabi, navy commander for the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The change updates identifying information for al-Nabi, who was sanctioned earlier this month (see 2401250011).
The EU and Japan this week met for the first time as part of a new supply chain working group to discuss economic security issues. The EU said the forum will allow the two sides to ensure a "level playing field by regulating state intervention in support to industrial sectors," swap “trade strategies” and talk about efforts to diversify supply chains. The European Commission said the new working group is “especially relevant” to the bloc’s recently published economic security strategy see (see 2306200052 and 2401240078), adding that it wants to partner with allies such as Japan on “anti-coercion instruments, export controls and investment screening.”
The U.S. and the EU held the fifth meeting of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council in Washington on Jan. 30, where the two sides again committed to increasing trade and cooperating on economic security and emerging technology issues, according to a European Commission readout of the meeting. The commission said the EU and the U.S. agreed to “explore ways to facilitate trade in goods and technologies that are vital for the green transition” and strengthen approaches to investment screening, export controls, outbound investment and “dual-use innovation.”
The Biden administration this week updated its guidance for companies doing business in Myanmar with new industry sectors and business activities that may lead to sanctions evasion, export control violations or other supply chain risks. The update now specifically mentions Myanmar’s rare earth elements; base metals and gold; timber; and aviation services industries, and warns companies about goods being diverted to military end uses and end users in the country; risks posed by financial services provided by state-owned banks; and ongoing forced labor and human rights abuses against Myanmar workers.
Two House committee chairs have urged the Biden administration to place export restrictions and sanctions on four “highly troubling” Chinese companies that are slated to provide software and other technology to a planned electric vehicle battery factory in the U.S.
The Biden administration’s proposal to impose new restrictions on U.S. investment in certain Chinese technology sectors is a complex undertaking that will be difficult to implement, a former Treasury Department official said on Jan. 30.