The Office of Foreign Assets Control added one individual to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, under counterterrorism designations, OFAC said (here).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control added two individuals to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, under counterterrorism designations, OFAC said (here).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control removed nine individuals from the list of Specially Designated Nationals, in line with President Barack Obama's executive order (here) to terminate the national emergency designation for the Ivory Coast, OFAC said (here).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control and PanAmerican Seed Company entered into a $4.3 million civil settlement, after OFAC alleged the firm violated the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations by indirectly exporting flower and other seeds 48 times to two Iranian distributors from May 2009 to March 2012, the agency said (here). PanAm Seed didn’t voluntarily disclose the alleged violations, which specifically involved seed shipments to consignees based in two third-countries in Europe or the Middle East, as well as arrangements made by PanAm customers for re-exportation of the seeds to Iran, the agency said. OFAC deemed the case to be egregious. High- and mid-level personnel of PanAm Seed and/or its parent company Ball Horticultural were aware of U.S. sanctions applying to Iran and the requirement to get a specific OFAC license to export the seeds, OFAC said.
President Barack Obama is adding Myanmar as a least developed beneficiary developing country to the list of Generalized System of Preferences beneficiaries after a roughly 27-year absence from the program, he said in a proclamation to Congress (here). Harmonized Tariff Schedule General Notes 4(a) and 4(b)(i) will be modified to list “Burma.” Modifications to the HTS will take effect and apply to goods withdrawn from a warehouse for consumption or entered on or after Nov. 13, according to the proclamation. The announcement aligns with Obama’s meeting scheduled with Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in the Oval Office Sept. 14. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative started reviews to consider Myanmar’s GSP eligibility in April 2013, after the nation’s qualification for the program was withdrawn in 1989 because of worker rights violations (see 13041521). A joint statement on the U.S.-Myanmar relationship said the Asian country has strengthened its protections for "internationally recognized worker rights."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control entered into a $43,200 settlement with World Class Technology (WCT) Corporation for its alleged exportation of seven shipments of orthodontic devices, valued at a combined $59,886, from the U.S. with the intent for them to eventually reach Iran, OFAC said (here). WCT shipped the goods to Germany, the United Arab Emirates, “and/or” Lebanon, with the “knowledge or reason to know” the shipments were intended to be supplied, transshipped or re-exported to Iran, in apparent violation of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, OFAC said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control added several individuals and entities to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, under Russian/Ukrainian designations, and has added several entities to its sectoral sanctions identifications list, OFAC said (here). The agency also made a change to an entity designation on its SDN list, it said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control added two individuals to its Specially Designated Nationals list, under Central African Republic designations, OFAC said (here).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control removed seven individuals from the list of Specially Designated Nationals pursuant to Zimbabwe sanctions regulations (here), as well as 40 other entities under counterterrorism designations (here), OFAC said. The agency also added two individuals and two entities, with ties to Mexico, under counterterrorism designations, it said.
U.S. shippers and forwarders are seizing new opportunities created through recently loosened trade restrictions between the U.S. and Cuba, yet U.S. export activities frequently fall short of firms’ expectations as companies often encounter uncertain and changeable terms of bilateral engagement. In addition to navigating incongruous trade regulations across both countries, firms involved in exporting to Cuba must still avoid violating the U.S. trade embargo while cultivating Cuban buyers who commonly have spotty phone and internet access, according to several private sector officials directly engaged in U.S.-Cuba trade regulations.