Baker McKenzie’s Global Compliance News Blog published “Multijurisdictional: 2021 Virtual Global Trade Conference,” which can be viewed here.
On June 3, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14032, “Addressing the Threat from Securities Investments that Finance Certain Companies of the People’s Republic of China” (the “CMIC EO”). This amends and replaces Executive Order 13959 (EO 13959) and revokes Executive Order 13974 (EO 13974) that restricted investments in certain “Communist Chinese Military Companies” (CCMCs). The main changes implemented by the CMIC EO and related public guidance are to (1) change the group of targeted Chinese companies to focus on…
In the past several days, the US Government has issued a slew of sanctions measures targeting Russia. These represent the first major escalation of sanctions against Russia under the Biden Administration and, according to a White House Fact Sheet, are stated to be in response to Russia’s “harmful foreign activities,” including efforts to undermine free and fair democratic elections and institutions, malicious cyber activities (including the recent SolarWinds incident), transnational corruption, targeting of dissidents and journalists,…
The US Government has imposed a series of sanctions against Myanmar Economic Corporation Limited (MEC) and Myanma Economic Holdings Public Company Limited (a.k.a. Myanmar Economic Holding Limited) (MEHL), two military-affiliated conglomerates, in response to the February military coup in Burma (Myanmar). The combined restrictions are likely to have a significant impact on business activities in Burma as these conglomerates have substantial interests and joint ventures in several sectors of the Burmese economy, including trading, natural…
On January 27, 2021, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued General License 1A, “Authorizing Transactions Involving Securities of Certain Communist Chinese Military Companies,” (“GL 1A”) in relation to OFAC’s Communist Chinese Military Companies (“CCMCs”) sanctions program as implemented pursuant to Executive Order 13959 (“EO 13959”) and amended by Executive Order 13974. OFAC concurrently published frequently asked questions (FAQs) 878 and 879, which clarify OFAC’s previous guidance on subsidiary entities with names that “closely match”…
On January 12, 2021, the Department of Commerce issued a final rule (the “Final Rule”) amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement recent licensing review policy changes for exports of US-origin unmanned aerial systems (UAS), also known as “drones.” Our prior blog posts on UAS export policy developments are available here and here. The Final Rule implements the more flexible export license review policy applicable to a specific subset of UAS with maximum airspeeds of less than 800 km…
On December 22, 2020, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) formally added the Central Bank of Syria (“CBOS”) to the List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (the “SDN List”) along with certain high-ranking officials in the Syrian government and affiliated entities. Concurrent with OFAC’s designations, the US State Department (State Department) designated six Syrian individuals pursuant to Section 2 of Executive Order 13894, “Blocking Property and Suspending Entry of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation…
On November 12, 2020, President Trump signed Executive Order 13959, “Addressing the Threat from Securities Investments that Finance Communist Chinese Military Companies” (the “China Securities EO”), which aims to prevent US investors from financing the development of the People’s Republic of China’s military, intelligence, and security capabilities by prohibiting purchases of securities of certain “Communist Chinese military companies.” This development builds on US Government concerns over China’s civil/military fusion and access to US capital markets and financing.…
On August 13, 2020, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement requesting that the US Department of Transportation (DOT) suspend private charter flights to all Cuban airports. This action will suspend all charter flights between the United States and Cuba over which the DOT exercises jurisdiction, except for authorized public charter flights to and from Havana and other private charter flights authorized for limited purposes. Secretary Pompeo’s statement cites the Administration’s intent to deny economic resources to…
The US Administration has taken a series of actions in recent days to tighten US export controls for Hong Kong and to sanction Chinese government officials in response to the decision of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to impose a new national security law for Hong Kong. Most significantly, these actions put Hong Kong on a par with China with respect to license exception eligibility under the US Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by suspending all EAR…