The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week fined a Hong Kong company more than $5.2 million after it illegally bought more than 64,000 tons of Iranian thermoplastic, the largest fine by OFAC in more than a year. The agency said Sojitz illegally bought the Iranian “high density polyethylene resin” from a Thai supplier to sell to Chinese consumers. OFAC determined the case to be non-egregious, partly because senior compliance officials weren’t aware of the illegal purchases and had repeatedly told its employees that they could not buy Iranian goods with U.S. dollars.
India will appeal a World Trade Organization panel's reports that support cases brought by sugarcane producers, to the Dispute Settlement Body, the WTO said. Brazil, Australia and Guatemala brought the initial cases, which resulted in a panel report finding that India was not acting in line with its agricultural commitments. In the Dec. 14 panel reports, the WTO said that for five consecutive sugar seasons, India gave nonexempt product-specific domestic support to producers in excess of the permitted 10% level of the total value of sugarcane production via three assistance programs (see 2112140081). India's appeal will fall on deaf ears, however, since the U.S. has routinely blocked efforts to fill the vacancies on the Appellate Body, precluding the possibility of an appeal at the Appellate Body.
Iran imposed retaliatory sanctions on 51 U.S. citizens over their alleged role in the death of former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qasem Soleimani, Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The listed individuals include former or current U.S. government, military and CIA officials along with national security advisers and private business owners. The list includes Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley; Matthew Pottinger, former deputy national security adviser; Nikki Haley, former U.N. ambassador; and Erik Prince, founder of private military company Blackwater USA, now called Academi. Iran said the sanctions were made under the "Act on Countering Violations of Human Rights and Aventurist and Terrorist Actions of the United States of America in the Region." It said the U.S. "flagrantly breached" its international obligations in counterterrorism by participating in the death of the general.
The U.S. is working with Japan to build a multilateral forum to control exports of advanced technologies, which would be specifically aimed at limiting shipments to China’s military, The Japan News said Jan. 10. The forum would also include Europe and other like-minded countries and could restrict sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, quantum cryptography, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, the report said. The two sides are “currently specifying the fields to be subject to regulation” and hope to “establish a new framework for a small number of countries with advanced technology.” The White House didn’t comment.
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Lawmakers are expected to vote this week on a bill from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that would sanction companies associated with the Russia-backed Nord Stream 2 pipeline to punish Russia for threatening to further invade Ukraine. But an alternative bill from Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., could instead impose a host of broad economic penalties against Russia’s banking sector and various government officials.
The Bureau of Industry and Security delayed the effective date of its new export controls over certain cybersecurity items (see 2110200036) after receiving requests from industry, the agency said in a notice released Jan. 11. The controls, which were scheduled to take effect Jan. 19, were delayed for 45 days and will now take effect March 7.
Two additional U.S. lawmakers said they are concerned Airbnb lists more than a dozen homes for rent on land owned by a sanctioned paramilitary Chinese entity and asked the company to remove the listings (see 2112070062). Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and James McGovern, D-Mass., the two leaders of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, asked Arbnb to ensure none of its rental homes is located on property owned by U.S.-sanctioned entities and to “remove such listings if they are discovered.”
The U.S. and the EU this week announced a coordinated set of sanctions against Nicaragua for the country’s “fraudulent” presidential elections that have kept the Daniel Ortega regime in power. The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned six Nicaraguan government and military officials, and the EU sanctioned seven officials and three government entities. The U.S. and the EU announced the sanctions Jan. 10.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a new frequently asked question to address how certain “loans, contracts, or other agreements” are treated under its Belarus, Ukraine/Russia and Venezuela sanctions programs. The FAQ, issued Jan. 7, outlines how OFAC views modifications to “pre-existing loans, contracts, or other agreements to replace London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) as the reference rate.” The agency said any loans or contracts that use LIBOR as a reference rate and are “modified to replace such benchmark reference rate” won’t be treated as new debt for OFAC sanctions purposes, “so long as no other material terms of the loan, contract, or agreement are modified.”