The Commerce Department should tread carefully when imposing new export controls, foreign investment restrictions and limits on standards collaboration, which may jeopardize the U.S.’s position in global information and communications technology supply chains, U.S. companies and trade groups told the agency this month. Some of those regulatory restrictions are already having chilling effects on U.S. competitiveness, they said, as foreign firms and countries can quickly fill voids in overseas markets and leadership positions in global standards bodies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued four decrees imposing sanctions on 141 individuals and 49 entities relating to Russia's State Duma elections in the occupied areas of Ukraine, multiple Ukrainian airlines and Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 for Crimea and Sevastopol. The declarations -- 556, 557, 558 and 559 -- were approved by the National Security and Defense Council Oct. 15 and were issued by Zelensky Oct. 30. The restrictions can include an asset freeze, travel ban, restrictions on trade transactions, and the suspension of economic and financial obligations, the defense council said.
Norbert Basengezi Katintima, former vice president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), launched a case Nov. 5 at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to challenge his spot on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. Katintima is challenging the decision made by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to deny his delisting application. The former CENI official says that the circumstances that contributed to his original listing have changed, necessitating his removal from the list (Norbert Basengezi Katintima v. Bradley Smith, et al., D.D.C. #21-02917).
The Biden administration should impose sanctions on people and companies contributing to the climate crisis, especially those that are also violating human rights, lawmakers said in a Nov. 4 letter to the Treasury and State departments. The lawmakers specifically pointed to the illegal deforestation of the Amazon, which is damaging not only the climate but also indigenous peoples. Global Magnitsky sanctions could “deter” government officials, corporations and people “from causing additional harm” to the environment, the letter said.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., introduced a bill last week that would impose export controls and sanctions on those responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Introduced Nov. 3, the bill would restrict exports of certain defense items and services to Saudi Arabia to “protect human rights.” Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are co-sponsors. The Treasury Department in March sanctioned a senior Saudi official and a government agency for their involvement in Khashoggi’s death (see 2102260056).
Senate Foreign Relations Committee members introduced a bill Nov. 4 that would require more export controls and sanctions against those contributing to or profiting from the civil war in Ethiopia. The bill, introduced by committee Chair Sen. Bob Menendez, N.J., ranking member Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., “builds upon” the U.S.’s Ethiopian sanctions regime by requiring “targeted sanctions” against people and entities undermining peace in the country, doing certain business with senior government leadership, providing weapons to the warring parties and more. Although the Biden administration in September established a new Ethiopian sanctions regime (see 2109170036) and recently increased export restrictions for defense exports to Ethiopia (see 2110290004), the U.S. hasn’t yet issued specific sanctions.
Some record-keeping and reporting requirements in the International Traffic in Arms Regulations are burdensome and causing unnecessary issues for defense exporters and the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, industry told DDTC last week. The agency can take several steps to ease these burdens, including through more automation when submitting reporting notifications and more clarity of ITAR requirements.
The State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is preparing to publish new compliance program guidelines to help industry better meet agency compliance expectations, an official said. DDTC is also “close” to rolling out its new open general license concept, another official said, which would allow blanket approvals for certain shipments to close U.S. allies, potentially including Five Eyes alliance members.
Bernd Lange, chair of the European Union parliament's committee on trade, said that though it may be tricky to do so -- given that the EU and other countries have different ways of encouraging cleaner industry -- the EU's proposed carbon border adjustment measure should not be a way to just hike tariffs. "We have to avoid trade wars," he said to reporters in Washington Nov. 4. He said if another country does not have a cap and trade system and doesn't have a price on carbon, that doesn't mean they don't have climate change measures. "So we need to find equivalencies," he said.
The Biden administration is still working through a sweeping review of its arms transfer policies, which is expected to place more of an emphasis on human rights concerns while helping to remove foreign barriers to U.S. defense exporters, said Tim Betts, a senior State Department official. He said the agency is in the middle of an “intensive” interagency process and “wide ranging” discussions with industry and Congress to determine how best to revise its conventional arms transfer policies, which could represent a more cautious approach compared with the previous administration.