On July 15, 2020, the US Department of State (“State Department”) updated its guidance (“Updated Guidance”) regarding the implementation of Section 232 of Title II of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (“CAATSA” see our previous blog post on CAATSA here and our previous blog post on the 2017 State Department guidance on CAATSA Section 232 here). The Updated Guidance expands the scope of CAATSA Section 232 to target certain investments or other activities related to the…
The US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) is extending the comment period for future extensions of the temporary general license (“TGL”) authorizing certain transactions involving the export, reexport, and transfer of items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) to Chinese-headquartered Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and its non-US affiliates designated on the BIS Entity List. Parties now have until April 22, 2020 (extended from March 25, 2020) to submit comments. BIS is…
On February 20, 2020, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) published two new Frequently Asked Questions regarding the interim final rule of June 21, 2019 that amended the Reporting, Procedures and Penalties Regulations, 31 CFR Part 501 (the “RPPR Rule”). These FAQs hope to clarify some of the issues that arose from the interim final rule but still leaves areas of uncertainty, such as what constitutes a rejected transactions. For example,…
On November 5, 2019, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued a new Venezuela-related general license (General License No. 35) (“GL 35”) to authorize certain administrative transactions with the Government of Venezuela (“GOV”) prohibited by Executive Order (“EO”) 13884 (“Blocking Property of the Government of Venezuela”); issued General License No. 34A (“GL 34A”), which supersedes and replaces General License No. 34, and authorizes transactions involving certain GOV-related individuals prohibited by EO 13884; and identified five current GOV officials on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (“SDN List”) pursuant to EO 13884.
Then, on November 21, 2019, OFAC announced the amendment of the Venezuela Sanctions Regulations (“VSR,” 31 C.F.R. Part 591) to incorporate additional EOs; make certain clarifying changes; add a GL authorizing US Government activities; and add an interpretive provision regarding activities related to judicial processes. The VSR regulatory amendments took effect on November 22, 2019 concurrent with their publication in the Federal Register, available here.
These Venezuela sanctions developments are described in more detail below. Our previous blog posts about US sanctions targeting Venezuela are available here.