Officials from the State, Treasury and Commerce departments are meeting with EU officials in Europe this week to discuss sanctions and export control coordination efforts in case Russia invades Ukraine, according to officials from both agencies. The delegation includes several senior officials -- Elizabeth Rosenberg, Treasury’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing, and Thea Kendler, assistant secretary for export administration at the Bureau of Industry and Security, among them -- the officials said, who will discuss various “sanctions options” and export control responses against Russia. The officials will meet with delegations from the U.K., France, Belgium and Germany.
The Biden administration is considering a request from Chevron to reinstate a license that would allow it to trade in sanctioned Venezuelan oil cargo and recoup unpaid debt, Reuters reported Feb. 7. Under the Trump administration, the U.S. oil company and others were authorized to “take and export Venezuelan oil to recoup dividends and debt from joint ventures” with Petróleos de Venezuela, the country’s state-run energy company, the report said. The “arrangement” was suspended in 2020 under Trump’s maximum pressure campaign on sanctions.
The Biden administration last week restored a sanctions waiver for Iran’s civil nuclear program as the sides continue indirect talks about a U.S. return to the Iranian nuclear deal (see 2112290022). The waiver -- which was notified to Congress last week, according to a senior State Department official -- would allow certain third-party countries to participate in nonproliferation work involving Iran’s nuclear program. The waiver is "essential to ensuring Iran’s swift compliance with its nuclear commitments" under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the official said Feb. 7. "Absent this sanctions waiver, detailed technical discussions with third parties regarding disposition of stockpiles and other activities of nonproliferation value cannot take place."
The Bureau of Industry and Security added 33 Chinese entities to its Unverified List this week, including universities and companies operating in China's technology and electronics sectors. BIS hasn’t been able to verify the “legitimacy and reliability” of the entities through end-use checks, including their ability to responsibly receive controlled U.S. exports, the agency said in a notice. The UVL additions take effect Feb. 8
The U.K.'s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Legal Directorate released its 2021 annual review, which includes the directorate's sanctions practices. The report discusses the sanctions work on the U.K.'s new corruption sanctions regime and 2021 sanctions updates on Afghanistan and Myanmar. The Legal Directorate said it helped carve out the humanitarian exemption to the Afghanistan sanctions regime and it drafted the 2021 Myanmar sanctions regime in response to the coup in the Southeast Asian country.
The EU should build a sanctions regime against disinformation, a European Parliament Special Committee on Foreign Interference said in the final conclusions of an 18-month investigation. The committee said that the European public and government are "'overwhelmingly' unaware of the severity of the threat posed by foreign autocratic regimes," namely, Russia and China. This leads to a particular vulnerability to cyberattacks and the recruitment of former senior officials to help polarize the public debate, the report said. To counter such threats, the committee recommended supporting "pluralistic media" and fact-checkers, making online platforms invest in language skills to act on illegal and harmful content, designating digital election infrastructure as critical, banning foreign funding of European political parties and improving cybersecurity, among other things. The committee also recommended a sanctions regime to combat disinformation.
Companies could face a variety of compliance challenges if the U.S. expands its foreign direct product rule to capture exports to Russia, Cooley's Annie Froehlich, an export control lawyer, said in a Feb. 3 Atlantic Council blog post. The U.S. has reportedly considered using the rule if Russia further invades Ukraine, which could limit Russia’s ability to import certain foreign-produced chips, integrated circuits and microprocessors, the post said. “If regulatory actions are imposed, assessing exposure and implementing appropriate compliance responses will be challenging.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security will add 33 Chinese entities to its Unverified List this week, including a range of companies operating in China's technology and electronics sectors, it said in a notice released Feb. 7. BIS said it hasn’t been able to verify the “legitimacy and reliability” of the entities through end-use checks, including their ability to responsibly receive controlled U.S. exports. All export license exceptions involving those parties will be suspended, and exporters must obtain a statement from any party listed on the UVL before proceeding with certain exports.
The House voted 222-210 last week to pass its China competition bill, which includes a variety of provisions that could expand U.S. export controls, sanctions and investment screening authorities. Although the America Competes Act faced objections from Republicans who argued it wasn’t tough enough on China and didn’t include strong enough export control measures (see 2202020039), several provisions could lead to more China sanctions and further restrict exports of critical American technologies.
Israel's Ministry of Justice released proposed amendments to the nation's 2016 Counter-Terrorism Law that would allow the defense minister to independently add people to its "terrorist operatives" sanctions regime if those additions are based on designations made by "competent foreign sanctions authorities." According to an unofficial translation, the proposed amendment also allows for the implementation of U.N. terrorist sanctions on Israeli citizens, as the current law does not permit such designations. The deadline for comments on the proposed changes is Feb. 6.