Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, introduced a bill March 11 that would impose financial sanctions on Chinese companies, government entities and individuals who engage in a “pattern of significant theft” of U.S. intellectual property. Curtis’ proposed ‘‘Combatting China’s Pilfering of Intellectual Property Act,’’ or ‘‘CCP IP Act,’’ was referred to the House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., announced March 12 that he has introduced a bill to incentivize the Office of Foreign Assets Control to increase its sanctions enforcement. The bill is needed because “as of recently, OFAC has not been as aggressive in sanctions enforcement as it should be,” the announcement says.
Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, said March 12 that he's drafting a “tough sanctions bill” to help reduce U.S. reliance on Russian state-owned company Rosatom for nuclear fuel.
President Joe Biden extended for one year beyond March 15 a national emergency that authorizes certain sanctions related to Iran. The White House said Iran continues to participate in the "proliferation and development of missiles and other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities," support terrorist groups and otherwise threaten U.S. national security.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned four people with ties to Al-Ashtar Brigades, a Bahrain-based militant group that the U.S. designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2018. The designations, which OFAC said were coordinated with Bahrain, target people who were charged by Bahrain with terrorism-related activities before they fled to Iran to avoid prison.
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A new rule released by the Bureau of Industry and Security clarifies certain export controls on radiation hardened integrated circuits -- including computer and telecommunications equipment using those circuits -- and expands the availability for a license exception that can be used to export certain microelectronics under contracts with the U.S. government.
Adam Deutsch, former director for international economics at the National Security Council, recently joined Meta as its sanctions strategy and emerging risks lead, he announced on LinkedIn last week. Deutsch left the National Security Council in 2022 and was most recently a sanctions advisory manager at PayPal.
The U.K. on March 11 amended the entry for the North Korean Ministry of National Defense under the North Korea sanctions regime, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced. OFSI noted that the ministry's name changed from the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces to the Ministry of National Defense.
The U.K. on March 8 announced it has extended the deadline for providing additional attestations or itemized ancillary costs under its Russian oil services ban from 28 to 30 days. The change was included as part of the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation's guidance on the maritime services ban and oil price cap. Under this guidance, OFSI said its attestation process requires different players in the oil supply chain to provide different levels of evidence that the oil they are trading is below the price cap.