Treasury Issues General License for Some Exports to Venezuela After Trump Announces Sanctions
Treasury issued a general license on Aug. 25 to authorize “new debt transactions” related to exports of agricultural and medical products to Venezuela, after President Donald Trump on Aug. 24 signed an executive order imposing a new batch of financial sanctions on the nation. “General License 4” authorizes financing and all transactions related to “new debt” related to the export or re-export from the U.S. or by a U.S. person of agricultural goods, medicine, medical devices, or replacement parts and components of medical devices to Venezuela, or to third-country persons buying specifically for resale to the country. Notwithstanding the general license, the transactions must comply with other agencies’ export application requirements and the Export Administration Act of 1979. Treasury also will allow exports and imports of petroleum to continue despite the sanctions, the White House said in a statement.
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The general license definition of “agricultural commodities” comprises seeds for food crops; conventional or organic fertilizers; reproductive materials for the production of food animals, such as live animals, fertilized eggs, embryos, and semen; “food for humans,” including raw, processed and packaged foods, live animals, vitamins and minerals, food additives or supplements, and bottled drinking water; and food for animals, including animal feeds; as well as products that otherwise fall within the term “agricultural commodity” as defined in Section 102 of the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978. Treasury is defining “medicine” as an item that falls within the “drug” definition in Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act Section 201. The license defines “medical device” as an item that falls within the definition of “device” in that same statute.