President Donald Trump discussed removing sanctions on Iran to help schedule a meeting with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani later this month, Bloomberg reported Sept. 11. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was in favor of the move as a way to restart negotiations with Iran, the report said, but then-National Security Adviser John Bolton argued against it. Bolton resigned one day later.
The State Department announced sanctions on Zhuhai Zhenrong, China’s state-owned oil company, for buying petroleum from Iran, according to a notice in the Aug. 15 Federal Register. The sanctions -- which target the company and Youmin Li, its executive director and general manager -- take effect Sept. 16.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 5-9 in case they were missed.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a set of frequently asked questions and amended the Iranian Financial Sanctions Regulations to implement a May executive order that imposed sanctions on Iran iron, steel, aluminum and copper, OFAC said in a notice scheduled to be published in the Aug. 7 Federal Register. The executive order was intended to cut off revenue streams from Iran’s metals sectors that fund the country’s nuclear weapons program, the notice said. The amendments to the sanctions regulations change the heading “Iranian Human Rights Abuses Sanctions Regulations” to the “Iranian Sector and Human Rights Abuses Sanctions Regulations” to reflect U.S. sanctions on Iran’s metal sectors.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control agreed on a $1.7 million settlement with PACCAR Inc., of Bellevue, Washington, for 63 violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran by PACCAR’s subsidiary, OFAC said in an Aug. 6 notice. The subsidiary, Netherlands-based DAF Trucks N.V., sold 63 trucks worth more than $5 million to European customers that DAF knew intended to sell the trucks to Iran, OFAC said.
U.S. sanctions on Iran will force the country to come to the negotiating table but may be permanently damaging U.S. relationships with other trading partners, said James Cartwright, a former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a current board director for the Atlantic Council.
U.S. sanctions on Iran (see 1907080019) will not lead to a clear outcome, said Sarah Ladislaw, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies Energy and National Security Program, adding that the U.S.’s failure may leave it without a contingency plan.
As the U.S. and the European Union continue to impose diverging sanctions measures, global businesses are being tasked with increasingly challenging compliance dilemmas, several trade experts said during a July 25 KPMG webinar. Companies are facing more strategic decisions about which countries they can and cannot afford to trade with and are reconsidering multiyear contracts because of the constantly changing sanctions landscape, the experts said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued an advisory on Iran’s “deceptive practices” in the civil aviation industry, detailing Iran’s use of commercial airlines for terrorism, weapons programs and sanctions violations. The eight-page advisory, issued July 23, lists several practices U.S. companies should be aware of to avoid violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. The advisory also reviews the U.S.’s current Iran sanctions regime as well as penalties for committing violations.
An Iranian citizen pleaded guilty to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and Iran sanctions after she tried to illegally export gas turbine parts from the U.S. to Iran, the Department of Justice said in a July 19 press release. Mahin Mojtahedzadeh faces a maximum 20-year prison sentence and $1 million fine when sentenced in November.