The U.K. issued a general license July 3 allowing certain transactions involving sanctioned parties and visa application service providers. Under the license, providers can receive and remit visa application fees, and British individuals and businesses can make visa application payments on behalf of sanctioned parties. Details of those transactions must be reported to the U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation within 28 days of making the payment.
Italy on July 1 published a national export control list for goods that aren’t yet listed by the EU’s dual-use export control regulation but that the country is requiring to have a license for export, Italian trade consultant ZPC said in a client alert, according to an unofficial translation. The announcement follows similar moves by Spain, France and the Netherlands, ZPC said, adding that the lists are a way for European countries to coordinate on export restrictions that aren’t yet agreed to by all member states or at multilateral export control forums, such as the Wassenaar Arrangement. The European Commission began publishing a compilation of member states' national export control lists last year (see 2310270019).
Shipments of used vehicles aren’t subject to U.S. regulations governing those exports if the U.S. seller doesn’t transfer the vehicles’ titles, ownership and other responsibilities to the foreign customer until after the vehicle is delivered overseas, CBP said in a recent customs ruling.
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.