Former Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Martha Bárcena said that she has been told that the U.S. will not comply with the panel ruling that said that rollup was understood to be part of the automotive rule of origin (see 2403070067), and she said that is undermining USMCA. She said that's because both the Republicans and the Democrats are fighting for the political support of the United Autoworkers and Teamsters. (The autoworkers' union characterizes rollup as watering down the requirement for North American content in vehicles).
Representatives from the U.S., Singapore, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates convened this week with Maldivian officials in the Maldives to discuss export controls and other trade issues during the inaugural Maldives Strategic Trade Management Forum.
U.S. semiconductor export controls on China lack a clear “endgame,” said Michael Mazarr, a senior political scientist with the RAND think tank. He said the controls are a “perfect example” of a U.S. policy approach that embraces “competition for its own sake and rushing down blind alleys without a clear sense of where policy will lead.”
New export compliance guidance issued by the Bureau of Industry and Security outlines the agency’s due diligence expectations for financial institutions and warns that companies that “self-blind” to red flags could face penalties.
The Council of the European Union on Oct. 8 renewed the sanctions' regime on Sudan and ISIL/Da'esh and al-Qaeda for another year. The sanctions on those undermining the stability of Sudan currently cover six people and six entities and will now run until Oct. 10, 2025. The sanctions on ISIL cover 15 people and six entities and will now apply until Oct. 31, 2025.
A Dutch court sentenced an unnamed Soviet Union-born defendant to two years and eight months in prison last week for exporting more than 460 sanctioned aircraft parts to three Russian companies, the London office of Duane Morris said.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urged the Biden administration late Oct. 7 to impose “robust” sanctions on the leaders of Sudan’s two warring parties for what his office called “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”
The U.K. on Oct. 8 corrected four entries listed in its cyber sanctions regime. The changes correct name spellings and a date of birth for Eduard Benderskiy, Aleksey Shchetinin, Dmitriy Slobodskoy and Maksim Yakubets, who were sanctioned for their ties to Russian crybercrime group Evil Corp.
The U.K. on Oct. 8 sanctioned one person and three entities with ties to chemical weapons, including Igor Anatolyevich Kirillov, head of the radiological chemical and biological defense troops in Russia, which is involved in transferring chemical weapons for use in the war in Ukraine. The agency also sanctioned the 33rd Scientific Research and Testing Institute, Radiological Chemical and Biological Defence Troops of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation and the Russian Ministry of Defence 27th Scientific Centre.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Algoney Hamdan Daglo Musa, the procurement director of the Rapid Support Forces, a Sudanese militant group warring with the Sudanese Armed Forces. OFAC said he leads RSF efforts to procure weapons and other military items, prolonging a war that has killed thousands of people, displaced millions and has led to “emergency levels of hunger” within Sudan. “The United States will continue to hold accountable those who seek to prolong this conflict and restrict access to vital humanitarian assistance at a time of famine and fragility,” said Brad Smith, the Treasury Department’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.