Alison J. Stafford Powell (US), Philippe Reich (Switzerland), Eunkyung Kim Shin (US), Taylor Parker (US), Author at Global Sanctions and Export Controls Blog

OFAC and Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) Issue Memorandum of Understanding on Enhanced Sanctions Enforcement Cooperation between the United States and Switzerland

May 21, 2025 By Alison J. Stafford Powell (US), Philippe Reich (Switzerland), Eunkyung Kim Shin (US) and Taylor Parker (US) 3 Mins Read

On Friday, May 16, 2025, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) and Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (“SECO”) issued a joint Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) in regard to the United States and Switzerland’s commitment to collaborate and share information related to sanctions and enforcement which was signed on May 9, 2025. The notice is published on OFAC’s website here. The MOU provides that information sharing between the United States and…

United States and Canada Ramp Up Focus on Counter-Narcotics, Making Additional Terrorism Designations Targeting International Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations

February 27, 2025 By Alison J. Stafford Powell (US), Alexandre (Alex) Lamy (US), Julia Webster (Canada), Geoff Martin (US), Jing Xu (Canada), Vivian Tse (US) and Madison Bruno (Canada) 6 Mins Read

On February 20, 2025, the US Department of State designated several international cartels and transnational criminal organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (“FTOs”) pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (“SDGTs”) pursuant to Executive Order (“EO”) 13224. These parties have been designated for “threaten[ing] the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere,”…

Cuba’s Designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism and the Cuba Restricted List Briefly Rescinded by Outgoing President Biden then Reinstated by Incoming President Trump

January 22, 2025 By Alison J. Stafford Powell (US), Alexandre (Alex) Lamy (US) and Michael Amberg (UK) 5 Mins Read

On January 14, 2025, President Biden took action towards rescinding Cuba’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism (“SST”) and to remove restrictions on financial transactions with certain Cuban parties by issuing to Congress a Certification of Rescission of Cuba’s Designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism (“Certification”) and National Security Memorandum 29 (“NSM-29”) revoking a past National Security Presidential Memorandum related to Cuba that had been issued by then-President Trump in June 2017. President…

BIS Issues Proposed Rule related to Unmanned Aircraft Systems

January 18, 2025 By Alison J. Stafford Powell (US) and Vivian Tse (US) 2 Mins Read

On January 2, 2025, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (“ANPRM”) seeking public comments to inform the potential development of a rule to safeguard the information and communications technology and services (“ICTS”) supply chain for unmanned aircraft systems (“UAS”), pursuant to the authority of Executive Order 13873. This follows other recent developments in the ICTS regime, including the December 6, 2024 Final Rule amending…