U.S. export controls against China could cause the country to dominate the global industry for “lower-capability” chip technologies, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in its annual threat assessment released last week. The DNI also warned that China, which is quickly building new chip factories, remains the “top threat to U.S. technological competitiveness.”
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation updated its guidance on its maritime services prohibition and oil price cap on refined Russian oil products to show the price cap and the wind-down period for oil products loaded before Feb. 5, according to the EUSanctions blog. The guidance also includes a new "origin of goods" section on whether oil products have been substantially processed and details a new example concerning the transport of co-mingled refined oil products.
The EU General Court on March 8 annulled the listing of Nizar Assaad under the Syria sanctions regime, finding the European Council erred in establishing that he is still a businessperson in Syria, has any ties to the ruling Assad or Makhlouf families or is associated with the Syrian regime. The court also said the council violated the principle of legal certainty by retroactively imposing the sanctions in 2011 after confirming that Assaad was not the listed party for the previous 10 years.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York greenlighted the seizure of a $25 million Boeing 737-7JU aircraft owned by sanctioned Russian firm Rosneft Oil Co. DOJ said the court found probable cause to seize the aircraft due to Export Control Reform Act and Russian sanctions violations. U.S. sanctions on Russia specifically prohibit a plane made in the U.S. from entering Russia without a license. Since February 2022, the plane left and reentered Russia "at least seven times, in violation of federal law," and is currently thought to be in Russia, DOJ said March 8. The seizure warrant stemmed from the work of Task Force KleptoCapture, the interagency task force charged with enforcing U.S. sanctions on Russia.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week announced a host of new Iran-related sanctions, including new designations against a “shadow banking” network aiding Iranian entities and new sanctions against a network of Chinese companies with ties to the country's unmanned drone industry. The designations target 39 entities illegally allowing Iranian companies to access the international financial system and a network of five companies supporting Iran’s unmanned aerial vehicle procurement efforts.
The U.S. this week removed sanctions on a former Kazakhstan-based subsidiary of Russia’s Sberbank after the subsidiary changed ownership and asked the Treasury Department to delete the bank from its Specially Designated Nationals List. The subsidiary, now owned by the Kazakhstan government, is "one of the largest banks in Kazakhstan" and "systemically important to the Kazakhstani financial industry," a Treasury spokesperson said March 8, adding that the agency worked "closely" with the Kazakhstan government to help it complete the purchase.
The Netherlands this week announced plans to impose new export controls on advanced semiconductor production equipment, a move the U.S. hopes will align it more closely with American restrictions on exports to China. The new Dutch controls (see 2302160011) will target specific chip technologies “in which the Netherlands has a unique and leading position,” Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher said in a letter to the country’s parliament, adding that any additional restrictions should be imposed multilaterally.
Various European countries not in the EU aligned with four recent sanctions decisions taken by the European Council, the EU announced March 8.
French authorities seized a villa worth over $24 million and allegedly owned by a sanctioned Russian oligarch, French newspaper Le Monde reported March 1. The mansion, seized in October, is suspected of belonging to Russian steel magnate Viktor Rashnikov, the report said. While French authorities had already frozen three properties linked to the oligarch since he was sanctioned in March 2022, this property went unnoticed because it was "not declared to the tax authorities as being his property," the report said.
The EU added nine people and three entities to its global human rights sanctions regime for their roles in carrying out sexual and gender-based violence, the European Council announced March 7. The new listings include acting Taliban officials, Moscow police officers, members of the Russian armed forces, South Sudanese militia commanders, a Myanmar official and military office, an Iranian prison and the Syrian Republican Guard.