The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four people involved in a South African corruption network, Treasury said in an Oct. 10 press release. The network “leveraged overpayments on government contracts, bribery, and other corrupt acts” to fund political payments to control government actions, Treasury said. The measures include sanctions on Ajay Gupta, Atul Gupta, Rajesh Gupta and Salim Essa.
Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., agreed to support legislation that would impose sanctions on Turkey unless the Trump administration certifies every 90 days that Turkey is not operating in Syria, according to a framework of the sanctions released Oct. 9. The legislation would sanction all U.S. assets belonging to Turkey’s top officials, including its president, vice president and ministers of defense, foreign affairs, treasury, trade and energy. It would also block U.S. defense exports to Turkey's military and impose sanctions on any foreign person or entity that sells to Turkey’s military or energy sector.
The Trump administration plans to soon issue export licenses to allow a “select few” U.S. companies to supply nonsensitive goods to Huawei, an Oct. 9 report in The New York Times said. Trump approved the step in a meeting last week, the report said, a little more than a month after the Commerce Department renewed the temporary general license for Huawei until Nov. 18 (see 1908190039).
Jaguar Imports of Orlando, Florida, will pay a $98,000 civil penalty to the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security as part a settlement with the agency over unlicensed exports to Colombia, Mexico and Canada, BIS said in an Oct. 9 notice. The company is said to have illegally exported pepper spray, stun guns, handcuffs and police batons to the countries between 2015 and 2017, BIS said. The items were classified on the Commerce Control List and valued at about $35,355, the agency said. As part of the settlements Jaguar Imports "shall not take any action or make or permit to be made any public statement, directly or indirectly, denying the allegations." If the company fails to comply with the agreement, Jaguar Imports may see its export privileges denied, the agency said. The BIS order is effective Oct. 9, it said.
The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls on Oct. 7 released its report to Congress on defense-related exports licensed under section 38 of the Arms Export Control Act during 2018. The report contains an overview that details categories and subcategories of the U.S. Munitions List in the report and an appendix with a list of which countries received the exports, including their value and quantity. The exports had an “authorized value” of about $63.4 billion, according to the appendix.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept. 30 - Oct. 4 in case they were missed.
Chinese technology companies and the country’s foreign ministry criticized the U.S.’s decision to add 28 Chinese entities to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, a move that could lead to countermeasures, China said. China denied the allegations in Commerce’s announcement that it was involved in human rights violations of the country's Uighur population and urged the U.S. to “immediately” withdraw the Entity List additions, which it called “serious violation[s]” of international norms. “China will continue to take firm and powerful measures to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said during an Oct. 8 press conference, according to an unofficial translation of a transcript.
The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs on Oct. 7 updated its guidance on procedures for trading between Northern Ireland and Ireland after a no-deal Brexit. Beginning the day the U.K. leaves the EU, currently scheduled for Oct. 31, importers and exporters will have to file declarations for controlled or licensed goods between the U.K. constituent country and the EU member state, including for goods subject to excise duty, such as alcohol, tobacco and certain oils, HMRC said.
The U.S. is considering selling military goods to Greece as part of the defense cooperation agreement the two sides signed Oct. 4, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. Speaking with reporters, Pompeo also said the U.S. plans to pitch U.S. companies on doing business with Greece, warned Greece about doing business with China and did not rule out the possibility of sanctions or other measures against Turkey if it begins offshore drilling near Cyprus.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security added 28 entities to its Entity List for their involvement in human rights violations of China’s Uighur population, BIS said Oct. 7. The entities include Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region People’s Government Public Security Bureau, 18 of its subsidiaries and eight China-based technology and science companies, including Hikvision, a major supplier of video surveillance products. The announcement takes effect Oct. 9.