The State Department announced penalties on foreign entities for illegal transfers under the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act, the agency said in a notice. The entities transferred items subject to multilateral control lists -- such as the Wassenaar Arrangement -- that contribute to weapons proliferation or missile production. The entities mentioned in the notice include companies based in China, Iraq, Russia and Turkey and are barred from purchasing items controlled on the U.S. Munitions List and by the Arms Export Control Act. In addition, the State Department will suspend any current export licenses used by the companies; State will bar them from receiving new export licenses for any goods subject to the Export Administration Regulations; and government agencies are barred from entering into procurement contracts with them. The measures took effect Feb. 3.
Russia export controls and sanctions
The use of export controls and sanctions on Russia has surged since the country's invasion of Crimea in 2014, and especially its invasion of Ukraine in in February 2022. Similar export controls and sanctions have been imposed by U.S. allies, including the EU, U.K. and Japan. The following is a listing of recent articles in Export Compliance Daily on export controls and sanctions imposed on Russia:
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently signed a new “Food Security Doctrine” that aims to prevent imports of genetically engineered seeds for planting, according to a Feb. 7 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service. The doctrine also expands the list of Russia’s “self-sufficiency indicators” -- part of the country's effort to become more reliant on domestically produced goods -- to include vegetables, melons and gourds, fruits and berries, and seeds, the report said.
The Congressional Research Service released a Feb. 5 report on the global oil market effects of U.S. sanctions against Iran, Russia and Venezuela. The report contains an overview of U.S. sanctions against the three countries’ oil markets, including how successfully U.S. sanctions have blocked oil trade. The CRS said U.S. sanctions have succeeded in their goals in hurting the target markets, but U.S. sanctions frameworks do not include “design elements that consider possible oil market impacts” if the sanctions are eased or lifted.
Airbus agreed to pay more than $3.9 billion in combined penalties for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the Justice Department said Jan. 31. The bribery charges, levied by U.S., French and United Kingdom authorities, stem from Airbus’s scheme to bribe non-governmental airline executives and government officials, including officials in China, to retain aircraft contracts.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Jan. 31 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
A Washington state resident and Bosnia citizen was sentenced to 85 months in prison for violating the Arms Export Control Act and other weapons possession charges, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a Jan. 28 press release. Hany Veletanlic sold firearms on eBay, the press release said, and was involved in 20 separate exports to two “customer groups” in Sweden. He also exported firearm parts to customers in France, Russia and Brazil.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned eight people and on entity related to Russian interference in Ukraine, Treasury said in a Jan. 29 press release. The sanctions target Yuri Gotsanyuk, Mikhail Razvozhaev, Vladimir Nemtsev, Sergei Danilenko, Lidia Basova, Ekaterina Pyrkova, Ekaterina Altabaeva, Alexander Ganov and the Grand Service Express, a Moscow railway company that offers transportation between Russia and Crimea. The sanctions were coordinated with Canada, Treasury said, which announced similar sanctions Jan. 29. The European Union Council sanctioned seven of the eight people Jan. 28 (see 2001280047).
In the Jan. 23-28 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
A German court sentenced a Russian citizen to prison for illegally exporting military technology to Russia, according to a Jan. 9 report from Deutsche Welle. The citizen, identified as Vladamir D., was sentenced to seven years in prison after violating European Union sanctions by selling about $2 million worth of goods to “military recipients in Russia,” the report said. The goods are used for “military missile-related technology,” the report said, and included two “hot isostatic presses,” which are used in space-related technology. The man was also contracted to export 33 pounds of “decaborane chemicals” to a “military recipient” in Russia, the report said, and successfully sent an undisclosed amount. Authorities said the man “forged documents and used fake recipients” to evade Germany’s export controls, according to Deutsche Welle.
The Commerce Department released its final rule for transferring export controls of firearms, ammunition and other defense items from the State Department to Commerce. The rule revises the Export Administration Regulations to transfer items that no longer “warrant control” on the U.S. Munitions List to the Commerce Control List. The rule will be published alongside a final rule from the State Department, which details the changes made to Categories I, II and II of the USML and describes “more precisely” the items that warrant “export or temporary import control” on the USML. The rules, which have been highly anticipated by the firearms industry (see 1908130066), will be published Jan. 23 and take effect March 9.