On September 17, 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14046, “Imposing Sanctions on Certain Persons With Respect to the Humanitarian and Human Rights Crisis in Ethiopia” (“EO 14046”) aimed at addressing the widespread humanitarian conflict in northern Ethiopia. Both the White House and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken also released statements found here and here, calling for ceasefire negotiations to begin to find a political solution to the ongoing conflict in the region and…
On June 3, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14032, “Addressing the Threat from Securities Investments that Finance Certain Companies of the People’s Republic of China” (the “CMIC EO”). This amends and replaces Executive Order 13959 (“EO 13959”) and revokes Executive Order 13974 (“EO 13974”) that restricted investments in certain “Communist Chinese Military Companies” (“CCMCs”). The main changes implemented by the CMIC EO and related public guidance are to (1) change the group of targeted…
On April 8, 2021, the US Treasury Department published an updated List of Countries Requiring Cooperation With An International Boycott (the “Treasury List”). Significantly, Treasury announced that it had removed the UAE from the Treasury List following the UAE’s repeal of its law requiring participation with the Arab League Boycott of Israel and subsequent implementation of the new policy. In connection with its establishment of full diplomatic ties with Israel last year under the UAE-Israel…
The Non-SDN Menu-Based Sanctions List On December 14, 2020, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) published a new Non-SDN Menu-Based Sanctions List (“NS-MBS List”). The NS-MBS List is not the result of new sanctions but rather is designed as a reference tool to identify persons subject to certain non-blocking menu-based sanctions, including certain sanctions described in Section 235 of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (“CAATSA”), as implemented by…