Sen. Josh Hawley has introduced legislation to increase the tariffs on Chinese Electric Vechicles form the current 25 percent to 125 percent. This would be the first time that congress has actually set tariff rates since the Tariff Act of 1930, cosponsored by Rep. Willis Hawley of Oregon.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added two entities to the Entity List under seven entries for activities contrary to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests monday. One entity was found to have been involved in supporting online censorship and surveillance to target political actors and human rights activities in Egypt, and the other is being added for diversion of U.S. items to a Chinese Entity Listed party.
Fhe Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global standard-setting body for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), concluded its fifth Plenary under the Singaporean presidency on Friday. The FATF made several key advances, including kicking off a public consultation on potential changes to the FATF Recommendation on wire transfer information and the adoption of new guidance on trusts. The FATF also noted its concern on Russian Federation’s growing financial connectivity with North Korea and Iran.
The foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed on the need for a firm response to North Korea's provision of arms to Russia for its war against Ukraine, as well as on enhancing cooperation to address North Korean threats, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said Friday.
The U.S. Department of Commerce and GlobalFoundries (GF) have signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms (PMT) to provide approximately $1.5 billion in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act. The proposed funding would support a new state-of-the-art facility, significant capacity expansion, and the modernization of GF’s U.S. manufacturing sites in New York and Vermont, which produce essential automotive, communications, and defense semiconductor technologies.
A member of the Yakuza crime syndicate was indicted Feb. 21 for trafficking nuclear materials, including weapons-grade plutonium, from Burma. The scheme was uncovered during a DEA investigation into narcotics and firearms trafficking. The Justice Department announced the issuance of a Superseding Indictment charging TAKESHI EBISAWA with conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials from Burma to other countries.
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has targeted Joint Stock Company Sovcomflot, Russia’s state-owned shipping company and fleet operator. In addition to designating Sovcomflot, OFAC is identifying 14 crude oil tankers as property in which Sovcomflot has an interest.
Customs & Border Protection has released a new training video "How to Submit Allegations of Forced Labor," the latest in its CBP Trade Webinars series. This video outlines how to submit an allegation for forced labor, including where to submit and what to include in the allegation.
Akin Gump announced Opher Shweiki, former Commerce Department Chief Counsel for the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), has joined as a partner in its Washington, D.C. office. Prior to his role at BIS, Shweiki was the National Security and Cybercrime Coordinator at the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys and an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C.
The Justice Department unsealed of an Indictment charging sanctioned Russian oligarch and the President and Chairman of a Russian state-owned VTB bank, Andrey Kostin, with participating in two separate schemes that violated U.S. sanctions. The first scheme was to operate, maintain, and improve two superyachts, collectively worth over $135 million, while the second scheme was related to the operation and transfer of Mr. Kostin's home in Aspen, Colorado.
The Oil Price Cap permits service providers in Coalition countries to support the Russian oil trade only if the oil was sold at or below a specific cap. A Treasury policy note looks at the difference that the price cap is continuing to make three months into the second phase, as the coalition continues to take action to enforce the prohibition against the use of G7 services outside the cap.
Joining British and European allies, the US imposed a further raft of sanctions on Russia and her enablers. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning almost 300 individuals and entities. This is the largest number of sanctions imposed since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. State is designating three Government of Russia officials in connection with Aleksey Navalny’s death; together, Treasury and State are sanctioning over 500 targets. The Department of Commerce is also adding more than 90 companies to the Entity List.
The European Union announced another round of sanctions on Russia and her allies, extending the reach to include Chinese and Indian firms complicit in avoiding existing restrictions. The new measures focus on the procurement network supporting Russia's military, especially the supply chain to make drones. Twenty-seven companies were added to the Annex IV list, which means European firms cannot sell dual-use goods to them.
The White house announced initiatives to improve the cyber security of the US Port infrastructire, with enhanced authorities for the Coast Guard to inspect vessels and write minimum cybersecurity rules. Additionally, the administration will invest over $20 billion to subsidize the manufacture of cranes in the US and Korea, to reduce a dependance on Chinese supply. There are no plans to replace the over 200 Chinese cranes already in place.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published a small entity compliance guide today that provides an overview of the requirements regarding access to beneficial ownership information (BOI) by small entities. The guide includes sections summarizing the Access Rule’s requirements that pertain to small financial institutions’ access to BOI.
Nearly $500,000 of forfeited proceeds of an illicit machine tool sale to Russian buyers will be used to support a drone-based program to assess the damage Russian aggression has done to Ukraine’s electrical distribution and transmission infrastructure. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Estonian Secretary General Tõnis Saar announced the transfer at the Munich Security Conference Saturday Feb 17.
Marking the one-year anniversary of the Disruptive Technology Strike Force, the Departments of Justice and Commerce released a joint fact sheet touting their accomplishments. The Task force initiated 14 cases involving alleged sanctions and export control violations, smuggling conspiracies, and other offenses related to the unlawful transfer of sensitive information, goods, and military-grade technology to Russia, China, or Iran. These cases were brought through the work of U.S. Attorneys’ Offices throughout the country and the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section in Justice Department’s National Security Division.
A Florida couple were both sentenced to 57 months in prison for illegally importing and selling between $25 million and $65 million worth of plywood products in violation of the Lacey Act and customs laws. The defendants engaged in a sophisticated scheme to evade antidumping and countervailing duties owed on hardwood plywood products made in China by falsely declaring the species, country of origin or country of harvest of the wood from which the plywood was made.
February 15, the DOJ unsealed charges against Mauricio Gomez Baez, former Senior Vice President of Stericycle LATAM Between 2011 and 2016, Mr. Gomez Baez, a Mexican citizen and resident of Miami conspired with other Stericycle employees and agents to pay approximately $10.5 million in bribes to Mexican, Brazilian, and Argentinian government officials in order to obtain government contracts for medical waste collection for Stericycle.
A Jamaica, NY freight forwarder settled with the Bureau of Industry and Security for facilitating the export of enterprise servers and switches from the US to Iran without the required US government authorization. The settlement calls for a two-year suspended denial of its export privileges, thereafter waived, provided no futher violations and completion of compliance training.