On January 27, 2021, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued General License 1A, “Authorizing Transactions Involving Securities of Certain Communist Chinese Military Companies,” (“GL 1A”) in relation to OFAC’s Communist Chinese Military Companies (“CCMCs”) sanctions program as implemented pursuant to Executive Order 13959 (“EO 13959”) and amended by Executive Order 13974. OFAC concurrently published frequently asked questions (“FAQs”) 878 and 879, which clarify OFAC’s previous guidance on subsidiary entities with…
On December 28, 2020, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) issued a final rule amending the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) to revise the Country Group designations for Ukraine, Mexico, and Cyprus. BIS has placed these countries’ into more permissive Country Groups due to these countries’ membership in multilateral export control regimes, as well as national security interests and policies compatible with those of the United States. The impact of these…
On December 14, 2020, the US Government announced Sudan’s removal from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (the “SST List”). This rescission of Sudan as an SST follows an agreement in October for Sudan to be removed from the list and the lapse of a 45 day congressional notification period. The federal register notice regarding the rescission is available here. As detailed in our previous blog post here, the US Government revoked Sudan sanctions in October 2017,…
On November 13, 2020, the Trump Administration issued Executive Order 13959, “Addressing the Threat from Securities Investments that Finance Communist Chinese Military Companies” (the “China Securities EO”), which aims to prevent US investors from financing the development of the People’s Republic of China’s military, intelligence, and security capabilities by prohibiting purchases of securities of certain “Communist Chinese military companies.” This development builds on US Government concerns over China’s civil/military fusion and access to US capital…