On January 14, 2025, President Biden took action towards rescinding Cuba’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism (“SST”) and to remove restrictions on financial transactions with certain Cuban parties by issuing to Congress a Certification of Rescission of Cuba’s Designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism (“Certification”) and National Security Memorandum 29 (“NSM-29”) revoking a past National Security Presidential Memorandum related to Cuba that had been issued by then-President Trump in June 2017. President…
On December 2, 2024, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) issued long anticipated and extensive new controls to impair China’s indigenous production of advanced semiconductors and other items that can be used in advanced weapon systems, AI, and advanced computing in support of China’s military-civil fusion program. The new rules have a particular focus on the tools used in semiconductor manufacturing and on certain high bandwidth memory (“HBM”), and this…
The US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) issued an interim final rule (the “IFR”) on September 6, 2024 that imposes new “plurilateral” worldwide licensing controls on certain advanced technologies, including certain quantum, semiconductor-related and additive manufacturing items, under new and amended ECCNs in the Export Administration Regulations (the “EAR”), introduces a new license exception for certain items to allied countries implementing equivalent controls, adds two new general licenses for certain Gate…
On April 18, 2024, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (“FCDO”) announced a coordinated sanctions package targeting Iran. In the US, OFAC added 16 individuals and 10 entities to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (“SDN List”) and the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) also expanded the scope of Foreign Direct Product (“FDP”) rules for foreign-produced items…