On June 11, 2020, President Trump issued Executive Order 13928 “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Associated with the International Criminal Court” (“ICC EO”), which authorizes the imposition of sanctions and visa restrictions on non-US ICC officials in connection with investigations into US or allied government officials or military personnel. The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, which is the treaty that established the ICC. The President declared a national emergency under…
On April 27, 2020, US Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) published a set of Frequently Asked Questions available here (“FAQ Guidance”) regarding the export of personal protective equipment products (“PPE Products”) covered under the temporary final rule published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA Rule”). Our blog posts on the FEMA Rule, related exemptions, and other developments are available here. The FAQ Guidance provided via a bulletin in CBP’s Cargo Systems Messaging Service includes important information regarding the…
On March 5, 2020, pursuant to Executive Order 13851 of November 27, 2018 and the Nicaragua Human Rights and Anticorruption Act of 2018, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) further escalated sanctions against Nicaragua by naming the Nicaraguan National Police (“NNP”) and three NNP commissioners as Specially Designated Nationals (“SDNs”), citing serious human rights abuses. OFAC previously named other officials of the NNP as SDNs in 2018 and 2019, also citing…
On December 26, 2019, the US State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (“DDTC”) published a long-awaited Interim Final Rule (the “Interim Rule”) revising a number of definitions in the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (“ITAR”). While DDTC was accepting comments until January 27, unless a new or revised rule is published, the Interim Rule will go into effect on March 25, 2020. These changes will permit companies storing and transmitting ITAR technical data to benefit from cloud computing and email services that utilize global platforms.