The EU on July 3 declined to extend the protections in the Energy Charter Treaty -- a trade and investment deal for the energy sector -- to investments and investors from Russia and Belarus in order to boost its sanctions enforcement efforts, the European Commission announced. While neither Russia nor Belarus is a party to the Energy Charter Treaty, investors from these countries could theoretically use corporations set up in a signatory country to allege that the EU or its member states have violated "investment protection obligations" of the ECT and bring investor-state dispute settlement proceedings, the commission said. The EU's move eliminates the basis for making any such claim.
Douglas Robertson, former vice president of KanRus Trading Co., pleaded guilty on July 2 to conspiring to violate U.S. export laws by shipping "sophisticated and controlled avionics equipment to customers in Russia," DOJ announced.
A Hallandale, Florida, resident was charged on July 2 with smuggling controlled goods into Russia from the U.S. Kirill Gordei, president of Florida-based freight forwarding company Apelsin Logistics, faces three counts -- conspiracy to commit offenses against the U.S., smuggling goods from the U.S. and exporting a spectrometer, a controlled item, unlawfully -- DOJ announced. A Belarus citizen and U.S. permanent resident, Gordei faces maximums of five, 10 and 20 years in prison for the charges, respectively.
A former top trade negotiator in Mexico, Juan Carlos Baker Pineda, said he doesn't think the review of the USMCA will be about fine-tuning or technical changes to the trade pact.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on July 3 updated a range of Russia-related entries on its Specially Designated Nationals List and Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List to specify that they present secondary sanctions risks. The agency added language to those entries to clarify that they present a secondary sanctions risk under “Section 11 of Executive Order 14024,” a 2021 order that authorizes certain sanctions against Russia. The agency didn’t provide more information.
EU governments need to do more to stop China from exporting dual-use items to Russia, including by sanctioning more Chinese companies and imposing secondary sanctions on foreign banks and other entities that are helping to facilitate those transactions, three think tanks said in a recent report.
Germany on June 28 arrested four people, searched 23 residential and commercial buildings and seized various cash and assets pertaining to the illegal sale and export of passenger cars to Russia in violation of EU sanctions, according to an unofficial translation of a press release from the country's customs agency. The customs authorities seized over $14.5 million worth of euros, "extensive business documents" and five vehicles. The four arrested individuals are accused of exporting over 170 luxury vehicles to Russia since the end of 2022.
The U.K. issued a general license July 1 authorizing sanctioned parties to make certain payments "owed or due" to "His Majesty's Revenue & Customs; the Welsh Revenue Authority; and Revenue Scotland." The license also allows individuals acting on behalf of sanctioned parties to make these payments. Payment details must be reported to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation within 10 working days of the payment being made. The license took effect July 1 and runs indefinitely.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Bureau of Industry and Security denied, revoked or didn't take action on about one-third of all license applications involving Chinese companies on the Entity List between 2018 and 2023, according to a snapshot of licensing data released by BIS July 2.