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,”…
Baker McKenzie’s Canadian international trade and customs team is publishing a series of articles reviewing 2024 trade and customs compliance developments and looking ahead to 2025’s burgeoning issues. This article focuses on Canadian legislative and enforcement developments in Canada’s sanctions regime. In 2024, the Government began to lay the foundation for significant changes to the enforcement architecture of Canada’s sanctions regime. In July 2024, the Government introduced amendments, some of which came into force in…
On February 14, 2025, the Government of Canada announced further amendments to the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations (“the Russia Regulations”), adding two non-Russian entities to Schedule 1. In this significant move, Canada targeted Volga-Dnepr Airlines (Ireland) Limited, an Irish entity, and Volga-Dnepr Logistics B.V., a Dutch entity. This marks the first application of the 2023 amendments to the Special Economic Measures Act (“SEMA”), which expanded the government’s authority, permitting it to impose “secondary sanctions”.…
On January 27, 2025, the Government of Canada announced further amendments to the Special Economic Measures (Belarus) Regulations (“the Regulations”). These amendments list an additional 10 individuals and 12 entities in Schedule I of the Regulations. These sanctions were announced in coordination with the United Kingdom and include three Belarusian state organizations that are stated to have been involved in human rights violations and nine entities that are stated to be part of the Belarusian…