Kevin Wolf, a former Commerce Department official, said he has not been contacted by the Biden administration about heading the Bureau of Industry and Security, despite a Feb. 6 report in the Financial Times that said Wolf is viewed as a front-runner. “I have no information,” Wolf said Feb. 8. “I do not know who [Biden] will nominate.” Wolf served as Commerce’s assistant secretary for export administration under the Obama administration before joining Akin Gump as an export control and trade lawyer. The report said Biden has yet to name his choice for BIS undersecretary. The White House didn't comment.
The Treasury Department isn’t doing enough to limit the impacts of U.S. sanctions on humanitarian aid to Venezuela, the Government Accountability Office said in a report. Although Treasury has taken steps to mitigate the sanctions’ impact -- including through general licenses and by responding to individual questions about humanitarian aid -- GAO said the agency doesn’t “systematically track and analyze information from these inquiries” to spot trends or repeating issues. “Without collection and analysis of this information,” the GAO said Feb. 4, “Treasury and its interagency partners may be limited in their ability to develop further actions to ensure that U.S. sanctions do not disrupt humanitarian assistance.”
The U.S. will impose sanctions this week on foreign officials behind the military coup in Myanmar (see 2102020064), President Joe Biden told reporters Feb. 10. The measures will also include a set of “strong export controls” to impose “consequences” on the leaders of the coup, Biden said. “We’ll be ready to impose additional measures,” he said, “and we’ll continue to work with our international partners to urge other nations to join us in these efforts” (see 2102100012).
While the World Trade Organization faces multiple crises, including COVID-19 vaccine export control threats and massive trade wars, the institution's Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff delivered a 10-item agenda for moving forward. Speaking Feb. 9 at a Washington International Trade Association conference, Wolff said the WTO will be judged by “how well it deals with the crises of our time,” saying it must “demonstrate soon and visibly that it can deliver on subjects relevant to all those who engage in international trade or are affected by it ... pretty much everyone.”
Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., and 12 co-sponsors introduced a bipartisan bill that would require the administration to send Congress a report identifying any foreign person or agency that “knowingly assists, sponsors, or provides significant financial or material support for, or financial or other services to” Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The report should also identify senior members of those two groups. The bill would require a number of sanctions toward those people and groups, including no exports of controlled technologies, and says that the executive branch could block all financial transactions with the people and groups, if it chooses. The same language passed the House by voice vote in July 2019. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced a companion bill in the Senate during that Congress.
Ambassadors from the United Kingdom, Brazil, the European Union and Australia discussed on a Feb. 8 panel how to improve trading relationships with the U.S. and deal with the challenge China poses to the international trading system but had no insights into how to make breakthroughs on either.
After taking charge of its own financial sanctions regime after leaving the European Union, the United Kingdom will look to deepen engagement with the U.S., the EU and other close allies to bolster the effectiveness of its now-autonomous sanctions authorities. In a Feb. 4 blog post, the new head of the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Giles Thomson, discussed how greater collaboration with key stakeholders in the public and private sectors will be key to ensure improved compliance. In the spirit of this renewed sense of public-private camaraderie, Thomson announced a targeted outreach on licensing in the spring to focus on the additions and applications OFSI is making.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for Feb. 1-5 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Fourteen senators from both sides of the aisle urged the State Department to increase sanctions pressure on Myanmar by targeting all senior officials, military officials and companies affiliated with the military-led coup last week. The U.S. not only should target leaders, the senators said in a Feb. 5 letter, but also consider sanctioning “companies and conglomerates” controlled by the military. “There is no reason to believe Burma’s military leaders will return the country to democratic rule without strong and sustained international pressure,” the senators said, led by Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's top members. Coordinate sanctions with allies “as soon as possible” and convince the United Nations to investigate human rights violations related to the coup, the letter said. “Only strong, sustained, and multilateral pressure is likely to change the behavior” of Myanmar’s military, the senators wrote.
The State Department will look to “immediately and robustly” reengage with the United Nations’ Human Rights Council after the Trump administration withdrew from the body in 2018, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a Feb. 8 statement. The council is “flawed,” but the U.S. can better push for change from within, he said. The UNHRC, which can make international sanctions recommendations, can help promote freedom and human rights around the world, Blinken said, and lead to more effective multilateral measures. He said the U.S. will return to the council in the “immediate term” as an observer with the ability to speak during negotiations and partner with other members to introduce resolutions. “The best way to improve the Council is to engage with it and its members in a principled fashion,” he said. “We strongly believe that when the United States engages constructively with the Council, in concert with our allies and friends, positive change is within reach.”