Vietnam's Lang Son province reduced fees for border gate infrastructure and service prices at the Tan Thanh border gate, which is facing massive congestion of agricultural products for nearly a month, the state-run CustomsNews reported Dec. 29. Over 4,200 export-carrying trucks, 2,924 of which were carrying fresh fruit, were held up at border gates in Lang Son province as of Dec. 25, primarily at the Tan Thanh border gate, the report said. Accordingly, the rate for vehicles carrying export and import goods dropped by 10%, and the rate for vehicles carrying business goods in the form of temporary imports for re-export, goods temporarily exported for reimport, border gate transfer goods, foods from foreign countries stored in bonded warehouses for export and goods in transit was dropped by 5%. Lang Son also decided to provide free treatment for drivers infected with COVID-19. The report said the congestion of agricultural products has been on the increase because of China’s tightening of trade rules for COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control.
The U.S. began its eighth round of talks this week about rejoining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but it’s still soon to tell whether Iran has returned with a “more constructive approach to this round,” a State Department spokesperson said Dec. 28. The State Department earlier this month said both sides remained far apart on a range of sanctions issues (see 2112200009). “At a minimum, any progress, we believe, is falling short of Iran’s accelerating nuclear steps and is far too slow,” the spokesperson said. “As we’ve said before, this can’t continue or it will soon be too late to return to mutual compliance with the JCPOA, something we have sincerely and steadfastly sought to do for a number of months now.”
China this week released its first export control white paper, which includes an overview of its recently created export control law (see 2010190033), how it has sought to improve and coordinate its export restrictions with trading partners and its expectations for industry compliance. The paper also describes some new export control initiatives, including a broader enforcement approach and potential revisions to China’s export control list.
Rockley Photonics, a California photonics-based health monitoring and communications solutions company, won’t follow through with a sale to Hengtong, a Chinese power and fiber optic cable manufacturer, following Hengtong's addition to the U.S. Entity List this month. Rockley suggested the sale, which it described as a “data-communications-related technical sale,” could be subject to the Export Administration Regulations and require a Bureau of Industry and Security license.
The U.K. lifted its suspension on licensing military exports to Turkey, the Export Control Joint Unit said in a Dec. 13 notice. Confident that decisions on all license applications to Turkey can be taken on a case-by-case basis following a careful assessment against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, the ECJU released the military export suspension and will work with advisory government departments to get through some of the applications, it said. The expectation is that the unit will take around eight weeks to clear the backlog of existing applications for Turkey, the ECJU said.
Switzerland has added 17 individuals and 11 entities to its Belarus sanctions regime, following the EU in its sanctions relating to Belarus' moves aiding illegal border crossings into the EU. The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs' sanctioned individuals and entities include high-ranking Belarusian officials and hotels that contributed to the border crossings.
China has sanctioned four members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a federal government commission, in response to the U.S. designation of four Chinese officials, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The individuals are the commission's Chair Nadine Maenza, Vice Chair Nury Turkel and commissioners Anurima Bhargava and James Carr. The restrictions consist of a travel ban and an asset freeze. The U.S. imposed its sanctions due to China's human rights violations against the Uyghur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region.
President Joe Biden on Dec. 23 signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which includes a sanctions provision targeting human rights abusers in China. Congress passed the bill earlier this month (see 2112140077 and 2112160076).
The U.N. Security Council Dec. 21 added two new entries to its sanctions list. The UNSC added Sanaullah Ghafari to its ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qaida Sanctions List and sanctioned Ali Darassa under the Central African Republic. Ghafari is the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan group, the UNSC said, and Darassa leads the CAR-based militia group Unite pour la Paix en Centrafrique (Union for Peace in the CAR). Both were also sanctioned by the United Kingdom (see 2112220024).
The Treasury Department’s new “dangerous” humanitarian-related general licenses for Afghanistan lack oversight and could empower the Taliban, said Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. McCaul said the licenses are “broad sanctions carveouts” that could “reward, legitimize and enable the same Taliban that took power by force and has shown no interest in abiding by international norms.”