The US Government has taken coordinated actions this week that target Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd (“Huawei”), effectively cutting it off from sourcing US products and technology and likely barring its products from being used in US communications infrastructure and networks. The US export/reexport restrictions targeting Huawei took effect immediately on May 16, 2019. The expected prohibition on the use of Huawei products in US communications infrastructure is likely to take several months to implement.
On November 27, 2018, the President signed Executive Order 13851 targeting Nicaragua entitled “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Nicaragua” (“Nicaragua EO”) available here. The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) also issued a press release related to the Nicaragua EO available here, and added two close associates of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (“SDN List”) pursuant to the new Nicaragua EO, the notice for which is available here. The two new SDNs are the current Vice President of Nicaragua and President Ortega’s wife, Rosario Maria Murillo de Ortega, and President Ortega’s national security adviser, Nestor Moncada Lau.
On July 13, 2018, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) issued an order (“Termination Order”) immediately terminating the denial order issued on April 15, 2018 against Zhongxing Telecommunications Equipment Corporation (“ZTE Corporation”) and ZTE Kangxun Telecommunications Ltd. (“ZTE Kangxun” and, collectively, “ZTE”) that had prohibited dealings with ZTE involving items subject to US jurisdiction. ZTE has been removed from the Denied Persons List, and exporters and reexporters are no longer generally prohibited from supplying to ZTE items subject to US jurisdiction, including parts and components, or servicing such items for ZTE.
On January 12, 2018, the Trump Administration released a statement that the US Government would renew waivers of certain sanctions provisions in compliance with the US Government’s commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”). This same statement indicated, however, that future waivers would not be issued unless both the US Congress and US allies in Europe take action. This development further escalates the uncertainty about the future of the JCPOA that followed the Trump Administration’s October 2017 decision not to recertify Iran’s compliance with the requirements of the nuclear deal as described here.