Cleary International Trade and Sanctions Watch

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By: Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

Blog Authors

Arnaldo Bernardi
Amélie Champsaur
Alexander Galicki
Christine Barthelemy
Cleary Gottlieb
Daniel Ilan
Edward Crane
François-Charles Laprévote
Guillaume de Rancourt
Jean‑Yves Garaud
Katherine Mooney Carroll
Ling Huang
Marie-Astrid Dossche
Matthew Fisher
Nicholas Amin
Nathanael Kurcab
Polina Lyadnova
Paul Marquardt
Silvia Branca
Sujin Chan-Allen
Sunil Gadhia
Till Müller-Ibold
Zheng (Jonathan) Zhou

Latest from Cleary International Trade and Sanctions Watch

On September 13, 2018, the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Bill received Royal Assent, formalizing its application into UK law as an Act of Parliament.  This date marks less than one year since the Cross-border Trade Bill, also referred to as the “Customs Bill”, was first brought before the House of Commons.  The initial scope of the Customs Bill, as well as the accompanying Trade Bill, was discussed in a previous blog post.…
On September 25, OFAC designated four additional Venezuelan officials as “Specially Designated Nationals” (“SDNs”), blocking all of their assets and prohibiting any transaction in which they have an interest within U.S. jurisdiction. The new designations target important former and current officials in the Venezuelan government who have supported President Nicolas Maduro, whom OFAC designated on July 31, 2017. The newly designated officials include: Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro, the current First Lady and former Attorney…
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On August 8, 2018, the U.S. Department of State announced in a press release that in reaction to the use of the nerve agent “Novichok” in the attempted assassination of UK citizens Sergei and Yulia Skripal, the United States would introduce sanctions on the Russian Government under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination act of 1991 (the “CBW Act”).  The State Department announced that the sanctions will take effect on or around…
On 18 May 2018, the European Commission announced its intention to expand Council Regulation (EC) 2271/96 of 22 November 1996 (the “Blocking Regulation”) in order to discourage European companies from complying with newly re-imposed U.S. Iran-related sanctions. On 6 June 2018, the European Commission adopted a delegated regulation to enact these changes, which will come into force by 6 August 2018 (the date when the first wind-down period for the U.S. secondary sanctions on Iran…
On July 19, 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) confirmed through issuance of two new FAQs that Executive Order 13835 prohibits U.S. persons from attaching and executing judgments against equity collateral securing debt issued by Government of Venezuela state-owned entities, even if both the debt and the security interest pre-date sanctions.  Specifically, Subsection 1(a)(iii) of the Executive Order prohibits “[a]ll transactions related to, provision of financing for, and…
On 24 May 2018, the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (the “Act”) received Royal Assent, marking the conclusion of its passage through Parliament and its entry into law. The sanctions powers under the Act are expected to be exercisable following the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union in March 2019 (“Brexit”).[1] This blog post takes a look at the sanctions provisions in the Act and explores how the UK’s sanctions regime might look…
Last week, President Trump issued Executive Order 13835, further tightening sanctions on Venezuela.  The Executive Order had three new prohibitions, barring all transactions relating to the following: the purchase of any debt owed to the Government of Venezuela, including accounts receivable; any debt owed to the Government of Venezuela that is pledged as collateral after the effective date of this order, including accounts receivable; and the sale, transfer, assignment, or pledging as collateral by…