Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., reintroduced a bill April 30 that would authorize the State Department to sanction Vietnamese officials complicit in human rights abuses, such as torture and the suppression of religious freedom. The Vietnam Human Rights Act was referred to the House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees. The bill has received five previous House approvals -- in 2001, 2004, 2007, 2012 and 2013 -- but has stalled in the Senate each time.
A bipartisan group of five senators urged the Trump administration May 9 to use “all available tools” to hold foreign entities accountable for fueling Sudan’s two-year-old civil war.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., urged the Trump administration May 12 to impose additional sanctions on those fueling unrest in Haiti.
The U.K. extended its sanctions license permitting the winding down of transactions with Amsterdam Trade Bank N.V., which is a majority-owned subsidiary of sanctioned Russian bank Alfa-Bank. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation extended the license until May 12, 2030. OFSI also amended the license to say that any party, including the "Bankruptcy Trustees and any other insolvency practitioner," can make, receive or process any payments or "exercise all rights" in connection with any insolvency proceeding related to ATB or "the fulfilment of the Bankruptcy Trustees' statutory functions."
The U.S. this week sanctioned three Iranian nationals and one entity for their ties to Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, which works on nuclear weapons projects. The designations target Sayyed Mohammad Reza Seddighi Saber, Ahmad Haghighat Talab and Mohammad Reza Mehdipur along with the entity Fuya Pars Prospective Technologists.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls this month updated its list of commodity jurisdiction determinations for items and services controlled under the U.S. Munitions List. The new determinations cover certain amplifiers, drones, parts related to fuel tanks, freight advisory services, transceivers, helicopter training, engines and more. DDTC also said some of the items should be classified by the Bureau of Industry and Security under the Export Administration Regulations as EAR99 or other specific Export Control Classification Numbers.
Nature’s Sunshine Products, a dietary supplement manufacturer headquartered in Utah, may have violated U.S. sanctions and export controls, it disclosed this month.
The Bureau of Industry and Security officially announced May 13 that it plans to rescind the Biden administration’s AI diffusion export control rule and issue a “replacement rule in the future.” BIS enforcement officials won't be enforcing the Biden-era rule, the agency said, which was scheduled to take effect May 15. The agency said it plans to publish a formal rescission notice in the Federal Register.
President Donald Trump said the U.S. is considering lifting sanctions against Syria to help give the Syrian people a “fresh start” following last year’s fall of the Bashar Assad regime.
Beijing has launched a "special operation" to crack down on illegal exports of critical minerals, such as gallium, germanium, antimony, tungsten and other rare earths, according to an unofficial translation of a May 9 Ministry of Commerce notice. The ministry said China's Office of the National Export Control Coordination Mechanism gathered agencies for a meeting to discuss how they can better stop export smuggling, specifically pointing to "overseas entities" that "have colluded with domestic illegal personnel" to evade Chinese export controls.