Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 19-23 in case they were missed.
Violations of the Arms Export Control Act require knowledge that the unlicensed exports were unlawful, and not just that the exporter knew their general conduct was illegal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in an Aug. 20 decision. Vacating the conviction of a forwarder for Arms Export Control Act violations, the appeals court held that the lower court’s jury instructions were not specific enough and could have been misinterpreted to include knowledge of import violations in another country.
Adrienne Braumiller and George Alfonso will offer trade-related lobbying through a new lobbying firm founded by the pair, Braumiller said in an Aug. 26 email. Braumiller, who started the Braumiller Law Group, and Alfonso, who also founded The Law Offices of S. George Alfonso, said the two will partner to create a new lobbying firm called Reigncore. The pair "have combined their unique talents and experiences in international trade and artful persuasion to form the cornerstone of Reigncore, in order to provide the consulting and lobbying services best suited for each client’s specific objectives and goals," Braumiller said in the email. Alfonso will be president and Braumiller will be CEO, though neither will "provide legal counsel or representation," Reigncore said on its website. Lobbying areas include the new NAFTA, Section 301 tariff exclusions, and export control reform efforts, it said.
The U.S. is not expecting major companies to use INSTEX, the European payment system designed to allow countries to trade with Iran despite U.S. sanctions, said Brian Hook, a State Department senior policy adviser. Hook also said INSTEX will likely never be fully operational.
The United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation updated is sanctions guidance on ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qaida, the OFSI said Aug. 21. The guidance contains a list of sanctioned persons and recent HM Treasury notices on the terrorist organizations. The most recent notice, dated Aug. 21, includes individuals recently added to a United Nations Security Council Sanctions List (see 1908160019).
A Singapore-based trading firm was charged with shipping luxury goods to North Korea in violation of United Nations sanctions, according to an Aug. 21 post on the EU Sanctions blog. The company, SinSMS Pte. Ltd, was accused of shipping more than $650,000 worth (in Singapore dollars) of wine and spirits in 2016 and 2017 to North Korea through Dalian, China, the post said. The company faces a S$1 million fine. The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control in 2018 sanctioned SinSMS Pte. and its parent company, Dalian, China-based Sun Moon Star International Logistics Trading Co., for United Nations Security Council violations.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on Aug. 21 updated its guidance on the country’s current financial sanctions targets. The guidance includes a list of the country’s asset freeze targets, a guide explaining availability in four different formats of its list of financial sanctions targets, and a list of people subject to sanctions and other restrictive measures due to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
Paraguay designated Hizballah, al-Qaida, ISIS and Hamas as terrorist organizations, following similar sanctions levied by the U.S., the State Department said in an Aug. 21 press release. The State Department applauded the move and said it will help “cut off the ability of these groups … to raise money around the world.” Paraguay joins Argentina and the United Kingdom as countries that recently announced sanctions against Hizballah, which is "not a defender of Lebanon as it purports to be, but a terrorist organization dedicated to advancing Iran’s malicious agenda," the State Department said.
CBP is close to bringing industry on board to "go operational" with electronic manifest for export, said Jim Swanson, director of CBP’s Cargo and Security Controls Division, during the Aug. 21 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee meeting in Buffalo, New York. Swanson said he has multiple meetings in the coming weeks with companies about using electronic manifest. CBP has been testing it internally for a while, Swanson said.
China Criticizes US Restrictions on Huawei, Plans to Make Unreliable Entity List Announcement 'Soon'
China’s Ministry of Commerce repeated claims that it will retaliate against higher U.S. tariffs, said it opposed new U.S. measures against Huawei and plans to make an announcement involving its so-called unreliable entity list “soon,” spokesman Gao Feng said at an Aug. 22 press conference, according to an unofficial translation of a transcript from the briefing.