Baker McKenzie’s Global Compliance News Blog published “Global: 2022: International Trade Developments in a Challenging New World,” which can be viewed here.
On October 8, 2021, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) issued a notice and request for public comments on the potential reinstatement of certain exclusions of tariffs on Chinese imports imposed under USTR’s Section 301 investigation. USTR will examine 549 previously granted exclusions, many of which expired since December 31, 2020, for possible reinstatement. USTR will evaluate each exclusion on a case-by-case basis. The list of exclusions USTR seeks comments on can…
On June 14, 2021, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced new exemptions from a temporary final rule placing export restrictions on certain types of medical supplies and personal protection equipment products (“PPE Products“) used in response to the COVID-19 global health pandemic. The new exemptions include industrial N95 respirators, PPE surgical masks, and specific syringes and needles. The temporary final rule is set to expire on June 30, 2021. FEMA first imposed export restrictions on certain PPE Products…
On April 12, 2021, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued four amended Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) related to submissions made pursuant to the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (“TSRA”), as well as the Sudan Program and Darfur Sanctions. We summarize these FAQs below. FAQs Concerning TSRA FAQs 97 and 98 clarify the process for obtaining a TSRA license, as follows: FAQ 97 provides that OFAC only accepts license applications submitted online…
On March 29, 2021, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a final rule (“Final Rule”) implementing changes to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) that were agreed to at the December 2019 Wassenaar Arrangement Plenary meeting. Specifically, the Final Rule modified the reporting and self-classification requirements for exports of most mass-market encryption items and the email notification requirement for exports of publicly available encryption source code and beta test software. The…
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 Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the US State Department (State), and the US Commerce Department (Commerce) issued rules adjusting maximum civil monetary penalties (CMPs) under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (FCA), as outlined below. (For additional years of CMPs, see our previous blog post available here.) OFAC CMP Adjustments Under OFAC’s final rule published on March 17, 2021, the adjusted penalties apply to CMPs that are assessed…
On January 15, 2021, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published an interim final rule (“Rule”) amending various provisions of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement certain provisions of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (ECRA). Among other things further outlined below, the Rule imposes new restrictions on specific activities of US persons. By way of brief background, the EAR generally controls transactions involving US origin items (i.e., goods, software, technology) regardless of whether…
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 1, 2021, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (the “NDAA 2021”) was enacted into law after the US Congress voted to override the President’s veto of the bill. The defense budget legislation authorizes $740.5 billion for national defense spending and sets policies on military compensation, procurement of equipment, operations, and training. In addition, similar to most National Defense Authorization Acts in recent years, the NDAA 2021 includes provisions regarding sanctions and export…