European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa visited Damascus last week to meet with Syrian officials and discuss “renewed bilateral relations” with the country following the EU’s decision last year to ease sanctions (see 2505290017). The commission said the EU plans to pursue “enhanced trade and economic cooperation” with Syria, and von der Leyen said the EU has “invited” the European Investment Bank to resume activity in Syria. The bloc also has begun discussions on resuming the two sides’ cooperation agreement “so that Syria can start to benefit once again from access to the European economic market,” she said.
A Danish member of the European Parliament from an eco-socialist party called the Red-Green Alliance is pushing for the parliament to halt consideration of a legislative package that would drop tariffs on American industrial goods and give U.S. agriculture more access to the EU market.
The Council of the European Union on Jan. 9 renewed its sanctions on Guatemala for an additional year, extending them to Jan. 13, 2027. The measures apply to eight people and one entity.
The U.S.'s recent repeal of the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019 “will be a significant step towards greater investment and economic activity” in the war-torn country, but challenges persist more than a year after the ouster of President Bashar Assad, a trade lawyer said in an interview Jan. 8.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that his agency plans to eventually lift sanctions against Venezuela and is receiving significant interest from independent oil companies that want to reenter the market.
Exyte has improved its compliance program after a breach of U.S. export controls led to a $1.5 million settlement with the Bureau of Industry and Security last week (see 2601080059), a company spokesperson said Jan. 9 in an email. "Following an internal review, Exyte voluntarily disclosed the matter to BIS, cooperated fully with the authorities, and has strengthened its export control compliance program and controls," the spokesperson said. "The matter is resolved."
Companies should expect the Trump administration to continue to rely heavily on sanctions and sanctions enforcement as a foreign policy tool in 2026, including through new designations to pressure countries in the Western Hemisphere and penalties on gatekeepers that enable evasion, law firms said this month. They also said it's still unclear how the U.S. will approach its sanctions regime against Venezuela, although the administration would likely be able to easily roll back many of those restrictions.
The Pentagon is looking to tighten controls around fundamental research to better shield that research from “malign" foreign influence and intellectual property theft, including by barring grants if the research involves companies on the agency's 1260H List.
Former Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., who was a leading voice on human-rights-related sanctions legislation before retiring from the Senate at the end of 2024 (see 2412120051), plans to become a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, he said Jan. 8 in a hallway interview at the Capitol. The school's Washington, D.C., campus is on Pennsylvania Avenue near Capitol Hill.
China's Ministry of Commerce is beginning an antidumping duty probe on imported Japanese dichlorosilane, a precursor chemical used in the semiconductor manufacturing process. The ministry is accepting public comments within 20 days of Jan. 7, according to an unofficial translation, and expects to conclude the investigation within a year. The announcement came one day after the ministry announced new dual-use export controls against Japan, which were imposed in response to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi saying that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could potentially trigger a military response (see 2601070002).