On October 23, 2019, the Trump Administration rescinded the designation of Turkish officials and ministries.  The Executive Order remains in force, and so authority to re-impose sanctions remains. On October 14, President Trump issued Executive Order 13894, styled “Blocking Property and Suspending Entry of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Syria.”  Under this order, OFAC designated the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, the Turkish Ministry of Defense, and the Ministers of…

U.S. authorities take an expansive view of their jurisdiction when it comes to sanctions. They cannot, however, directly restrict persons outside U.S. jurisdiction from dealing with sanctioned persons. They therefore exert pressure on persons outside U.S. jurisdiction by threatening to designate them as sanctioned persons if they engage in certain activities contrary to U.S. sanctions policy (“Target Activities”). Sanctions imposed in such circumstances are known as ‘secondary sanctions’, and were the topic of the September…

On September 17, 2019, the Department of the Treasury proposed regulations implementing most of the remaining provisions of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (“FIRRMA”), which updated the statute authorizing reviews of foreign investment by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”).…

In the case of Ministry of Defence and Support for Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran v International Military Services Ltd [2019] EWHC 1994 (Comm), the High Court examined in detail the effect of the EU sanctions regime against Iran in the context of the enforcement of arbitral awards. The High Court found that EU sanctions precluded Iran’s Ministry of Defence (“MODSAF”) from enforcing the interest element of an ICC award against International Military Services…

On August 5, 2019, the U.S. Administration imposed blocking sanctions on the Government of Venezuela (“GOV”) under a new executive order. Although named individual officials, the Central Bank of Venezuela, and Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (“PdVSA”) were already blocked entities under U.S. sanctions, now all Venezuelan government entities and state-owned enterprises are blocked entities. Unless a license applies: all property and interests in property (broadly defined) of the GOV within U.S. jurisdiction are blocked; and…

On August 5, 2019, the European Commission (“Commission”) published its official Guidance on Internal Compliance Programmes (“Guidance”).[1] The Guidance aims to clarify and harmonize implementation of Regulation 428/2009 on Dual-Use Goods[2] (“Dual-Use Regulation”) by competent Member State authorities (“national export authorities”) and EU-based exporters of dual-use goods (“exporters”). While the Guidance is non-binding, national export authorities will take it into careful account when considering applications to export, transit or broker dual-use items.…

Late on Friday, August 2, 2019, the U.S. Administration announced that it would implement a second wave of sanctions under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 (CBW Act) against the Russian Federation.  These sanctions will; prohibit U.S. financial institutions from participating in future primary issuances of non-ruble Russian sovereign debt; require the United States to oppose any new assistance to Russia by international financial institutions; and prohibit the export…