Damen Shipyards Group, the Netherlands' largest shipbuilder, filed a lawsuit against the Dutch government for losses sustained due to the sanctions on Russia, a company spokesperson told us. Bloomberg first reported this week that the company filed suit at the Court of Rotterdam in May. The case is expected to proceed next year.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The EU has received assurances that Beijing will grant export licenses for shipments of gallium and germanium to European businesses despite the restrictions China placed on exports of the two metals in August (see 2307050018), European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said this week. Dombrovskis also said the bloc is looking to sanction additional Chinese firms that may be skirting restrictions against Russia and is hoping to ensure its upcoming supply chain due diligence regulations don’t impose excessive compliance burdens on EU companies.
The U.K. issued a General License Sept. 29 under its Russia sanctions regime to provide certainty that a credit or financial institution can return a payment to another such institution which has been processed by a sanctioned credit or financial institution at some point in the payment chain. The license applies when the sanctioned party acted as an original, correspondent or intermediary institution where the recipient institution and the institution that sent the payment are not designated parties, and the original account holder and the original intended recipient are not sanctioned parties. The license expires at the end of the day on Dec. 1.
Exporters should require their customers to sign written compliance certifications if the shipment involves items that fall under one of nine high-priority Harmonized System codes and the customer is in a country outside of the U.S.-led global export controls coalition, the Bureau of Industry and Security said. Although these customer certifications or end-user statements are not mandated by law, BIS said it’s recommending that companies begin using the certifications if they aren’t already, saying in a new best practices guidance that these statements will help prevent diversion of controlled items to Russia.
The U.K. added 10 individuals and one entity to its Russia sanctions regime in a Sept. 29 notice. The individuals include members of the Russian-installed governments in occupied regions of Ukraine, Russian Central Election Commission members and Russian government officials in Crimea. The sanctioned entity is the Russian Central Election Commission, which arranged illegitimate referendums in occupied Ukrainian regions and attempted to legitimize the results.
The U.K. updated its Russia sanctions guidance to add additional licensing grounds with the aim of divesting from Russia, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said. The guidance says that, for divestment purposes, a license may be granted to provide oil refining goods, energy-related goods, luxury goods, jet fuel and "Russia's vulnerable goods" in Russia or to someone linked with Russia. The licensing grounds also cover the provision of technical assistance, brokering services, financial services or funds related to the oil refining goods, energy-related goods, jet fuel and Russia's vulnerable goods.
The U.K. amended the entry for Alexei Kozlov under its Russia sanctions list. Kozlov is a member of the board of directors at Transneft, a Russian energy firm. The Sept. 27 amendment removed identifying information on date of birth, which had been listed only as the year 1974, and added alternate spellings of his name.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned two entities and one person for “undermining the peace, security, and stability” of Sudan.
The Bureau of Industry and Security again renewed temporary denial orders for three Russian airlines accused of violating U.S. export controls against Russia. BIS first suspended the export privileges of Aeroflot, Azur Air and UTair in April 2022, barring the airlines from participating in transactions with items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (see 2204070010), and renewed their denial orders for 180 days from October (see 2210040008) and again from March (see 2303300013). BIS said all three airlines continue to "act in blatant disregard for U.S. export controls" by continuing to operate aircraft subject to the EAR. The orders include a table of recent flights operated by each airline.