On Friday, September 18, 2015, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) and the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) announced amendments (the “September Amendments”) to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations (“CACR”) and the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) in a continuing effort to relax certain aspects of the US embargo against Cuba. The September Amendments follow an earlier relaxation on January 16, 2015 (the “January Amendments”) and the policy changes originally announced…
On June 30, 2015, the P5+1, the EU, and Iran decided to extend the Joint Plan of Action (“JPOA”) for seven days in order to continue ongoing negotiations. Accordingly, both the US Government and the EU have announced that the temporary sanctions relief provided for in the JPOA would be extended through July 7, 2015. As part of this extension, all specific licenses with an expiration date of June 30, 2015 that were issued…
On 13 December 2014, the US Congress passed a bill to impose certain new sanctions against Russia and in support of Ukraine. It is currently expected that this bill will be signed into law by the President within the next few days. The proposed sanctions include extraterritorial “Iran-style” sanctions against foreign parties engaging in certain activities in the defense, energy and financial sectors. The Senate first passed S. 2828, entitled the Ukraine Freedom Support Act…