The U.S. Department of State announced that Sudan’s designation as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism” has been officially rescinded effective December 14, 2020. In October, the President notified Congress that Sudan’s designation would be rescinded and certified that Sudan had not provided support for acts of terrorism within the last six months, and that Sudan
The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned CEIEC (China National Electronic Import-Export Company), a Chinese technology exporter, for its alleged support to the Maduro government in Venezuela. As a result of CEIEC’s addition to OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals List, all property and interests belonging to CEIEC, or any entity
The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued General License 8G (“GL 8G”), which authorizes five (5) U.S. oil and gas companies to engage in transactions “ordinarily incident and necessary to the limited maintenance of essential operations, contracts or other agreements”, as well as transactions necessary to the wind down of operations in Venezuela involving Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (“PdVSA”) or any entity which PdVSA owns a 50% or greater interest and that were in effect prior to July 26, 2019. Effective November 17, 2020, GL 8G replaces and supersedes GL 8F which was set to expire on December 1, 2020, effectively extending its deadline through 12:01 eastern daylight time on June 3, 2021. GL 8G applies specifically to the following entities and their subsidiaries: Chevron Corporation, Halliburton, Schlumberger Ltd., Baker Hughes (a GE company), and Weatherford International, PLC.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) recently issued a final rule, effective November 18, 2020, which revises certain provisions of the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) to implement enforcement provisions pursuant to the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (“ECRA”), which expanded the export control authorities available to the Secretary of Commerce. BIS also amended the EAR with respect to the issuance of licenses and denial orders and the payment of civil penalties, not directly related to implementation of ECRA.
The Trump Administration has encountered further setbacks in its efforts to prevent Chinese company ByteDance Ltd. (“ByteDance”) from providing its popular social media app TikTok in the U.S. For background:
President Trump issued an Executive Order (“E.O.”) on November 12, 2020 titled “Addressing the Threat from Securities Investments that Finance Communist Chinese Military Companies.” The E.O., which will be published in the Federal Register on November 17, 2020 and will take effect on January 11, 2021 at 9:30 eastern standard time, designates thirty one (31)
On November 2, 2020, the White House released a notice continuing the national emergency with respect to Sudan declared in Executive Order 13067 of 1997. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a press statement clarifying that the United States is continuing certain Sudan-related sanctions pursuant to obligations to the United Nations (“UN”), but that the
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) issued a final rule effective October 29, 2020 amending Section 742.4(b)(7) of the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) to revise the license review policy for items controlled for National Security reasons (“NS items”) destined for the People’s Republic of China (“China”), Venezuela, or the Russian
President Trump issued an Executive Order on September 21, 2020 which, effective immediately, imposes secondary sanctions on the transfer and sale of certain conventional arms shipments and the supply of related services to Iran by non-U.S. persons. This Executive Order follows the current administration’s failed effort to reinstate sanctions and a conventional arms embargo by
China-based smartphone apps, TikTok and WeChat, have each received a reprieve from the respective bans, which were originally ordered by President Trump on August 6, 2020 against both parties and were scheduled to take effect on September 21, 2020. Please see our previous post covering the Executive Orders. Pursuant to the Executive Orders banning the