On June 8, 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14033 “Blocking Property and Suspending Entry Into the United States of Certain Persons Contributing to the Destabilizing Situation in the Western Balkans” (“EO 14033”), expanding the sanctions regime related to the Western Balkans. The White House also issued a fact sheet that details the US administration’s policy goals. US State Secretary Antony Blinken also issued a statement emphasizing the role that EO 14033 serves in modernizing…
On June 14, 2021, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) announced new exemptions from a temporary final rule placing export restrictions on certain types of medical supplies and personal protection equipment products (“PPE Products”) used in response to the COVID-19 global health pandemic. The new exemptions include industrial N95 respirators, PPE surgical masks, and specific syringes and needles. The temporary final rule is set to expire on June 30, 2021. FEMA first imposed export restrictions…
On March 29, 2021, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) published a final rule (“Final Rule”) implementing changes to the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) that were agreed to at the December 2019 Wassenaar Arrangement Plenary meeting. Specifically, the Final Rule modified the reporting and self-classification requirements for exports of most mass-market encryption items and the email notification requirement for exports of publicly available encryption source code and beta test software.…
In the past several days, the US Government has issued a slew of sanctions measures targeting Russia. These represent the first major escalation of sanctions against Russia under the Biden Administration and, according to a White House Fact Sheet , are stated to be in response to Russia’s “harmful foreign activities,” including efforts to undermine free and fair democratic elections and institutions, malicious cyber activities (including the recent SolarWinds incident), transnational corruption, targeting of dissidents…