A bipartisan group of five senators and two House members unveiled a new bill Aug. 22 that would create “democratic benchmarks” to guide the removal of sanctions on Venezuela.
The Census Bureau this week alerted export filers about a name change to a license code in the Automated Export System that reflects a new semiconductor-related export license exception introduced by the Bureau of Industry and Security earlier this year. The AES change revises the name of License Code C68 to “Advanced Computing Authorized (ACA) (NO notification required),” according to an Aug. 21 email from Census and a CBP CSMS message.
China’s recently announced export restrictions on antimony (see 2408150022) are expected to cause supplies of the critical mineral to tighten and prices to rise sharply, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said Aug. 20.
Although export control reforms by the U.S., Australia and the U.K. could exempt about three-quarters of defense trade between the countries and reduce compliance costs for industry, more updates are needed to remove lingering licensing barriers and address structural challenges posed by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, researchers said this week.
The Bureau of Industry and Security will add 123 entities to the Entity List, expand the scope of its Russia/Belarus-Military End User Foreign-Direct Product rule, add export controls on certain computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools-related software, and makes corrections to the agency’s Russia and Belarus controls, the agency said in two rules released Aug. 23. The Entity List and FDP rule updates take effect Aug. 27, and the new CNC controls and other corrections take effect Sept. 16.
Venezuela citizen George Semerene Quintero pleaded guilty Aug. 20 to conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions on Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), the Venezuelan state-owned oil company where he worked, DOJ announced.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week outlined several initiatives it has recently completed or is planning to launch to modernize its website, sanctions guidance, and licensing and compliance applications.
A final rule released Aug. 20 by the Office of Foreign Assets Control adds a new general license for Myanmar and updates “terminology and references” across other sanctions program regulations, OFAC said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Michel Martelly, the former Haitian president, who “abused his influence” to help drug traffickers move cocaine and other drugs to the U.S., the agency said.
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