The House voted 243-174 late Sept. 25 to approve a bill that would impose property-blocking sanctions on Chinese Communist Party leaders for committing human rights abuses, harassing Taiwan or undermining Hong Kong's autonomy.
Both chambers of Congress on Sept. 25 approved extending until Dec. 20 the soon-to-expire Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. The 2019 law requires the president to sanction Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for human rights violations in Hong Kong (see 2409230017). The extension is included in a short-term government funding measure, or continuing resolution, that the House and Senate passed and that President Joe Biden plans to sign into law.
The U.S. this week sanctioned Prophane Victor, a former member of Haiti’s parliament, for helping and arming gangs in Haiti that have committed human rights abuses, the Treasury Department said. It’s also designating Luckson Elan, leader of the Gran Grif gang, for his involvement in human rights abuses stemming from gang activity in Haiti’s Artibonite department. Brad Smith, Treasury’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the agency is “committed to holding accountable those who seek to leverage human rights abuses, violence, and corruption to achieve their political aims.”
The U.K. added two entities to the Russia sanctions regime on Sept. 26. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation sanctioned Ocean Speedstar Solutions OPC Pvt Ltd and White Fox Ship Management FZCO for operating in the Russian energy sector, a "sector of strategic significance to the Government of Russia."
Switzerland on Sept. 23 amended the listings of six people and delisted eight others under its Russia sanctions regime. The updated or deleted listings include Russian corporate executives, business people, government officials and others. The country notably delisted former Formula One driver Nikita Mazepin, who successfully challenged his sanctions designation at the EU General Court (see 2403210019).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned more than a dozen companies, ships and Luay al-Mallah, brother of sanctioned “shipping Syrian magnate” Abdul Jalil Mallah, for helping to move Iranian crude oil and liquid petroleum gas to Syria and East Asia. After his brother was sanctioned, Luay al-Mallah helped run his family’s shipping business, OFAC said, which assists the shipping network run by Sa’id al-Jamal, an Iran-backed financial facilitator for the Yemen-based Houthis (see 2408150008).
Lengthy license response times at the Office of Foreign Assets Controls are keeping many Iranian Americans from selling assets in Iran, especially if those assets are properties that have been gifts, Yazdanyar Law Offices said in a client alert this month.
LONDON -- The EU is hoping to soon make progress on several export control initiatives, including possible updates to its restrictions over intangible technology transfers and how countries coordinate on emerging technologies, a senior European Commission trade official said this week. It’s also planning to publish a collection of detailed export licensing data as well as new guidelines for exports of cyber-surveillance items before the end of the year.
Export controls on American technology are helping the U.S. maintain its technological lead over foreign competitors, and the Biden administration plans to follow that blueprint for restrictions around quantum technologies, said Don Graves, deputy secretary of the Commerce Department.
The U.K. this week updated guidance for its export licensing system known as SPIRE, or the Shared Primary Information Resource Environment, to “better explain” which standard individual export licenses (SIEL) should be applied for in SPIRE instead of the new “Apply for a SIEL” service. The U.K. said most exporters will use the new “Apply for a SIEL” service to apply to export strategic goods or products, which is on a platform separate from SPIRE. But it said certain applications must still go through SPIRE, including temporary SIELs involving multiple end-users and applications for sanctioned destinations.