Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 recent

On 21 December 2022 OFAC published final rule FR Doc 2022-27564, amending 30 CFR parts (31 CFR Parts 510, 525, 536, 539, 541, 542, 544, 546, 547, 548, 549, 551, 552, 555, 558, 560, 561, 562, 569, 576, 579, 582, 583, 584, 585, 591, 594, 596, 597, 598) to add or update general licenses authorising (1) official business of the US government and (2) official business of designated international organisations and entities across the full OFAC program library. The rule also updates the 50 Percent Rule interpretive provision, clarifying that an entity's property is blocked when one or more blocked persons own an aggregate interest of 50 percent or more — directly or indirectly — and corrects CFR citations to meet current Federal Register formatting requirements. Published as companion to FR Doc 2022-27639 (NGO and humanitarian GLs), both rules effective 21 December 2022.

On 20–21 December 2022 OFAC published two final rules (87 FR 78470 and 87 FR 78484) amending regulations across more than 30 sanctions programs to add general licenses (GLs) authorising four categories of humanitarian activity: (1) certain NGO transactions for disaster relief, health, democracy support, education, environmental protection, and peacebuilding; (2) provision of agricultural commodities, medicine, medical devices, replacement parts, and software updates for medical devices to blocked persons for personal, non-commercial use; (3) US government official-business transactions; and (4) official-business transactions of designated international organisations (e.g. UN, ICRC). The rules amended 29 CFR parts spanning Nicaragua, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen, and more than two dozen other sanctioned programs. The NGO GL excludes knowing fund transfers to blocked persons unless specified criteria are met, preserving the core blocking perimeter while lowering humanitarian-access friction.

OFAC reissued the Central African Republic Sanctions Regulations (31 CFR Part 553) in their entirety on 29 September 2022, replacing the abbreviated framework first published on 7 July 2014 under Executive Order 13667. The reissuance adds interpretive guidance, definitions, and general licenses — including provisions for humanitarian assistance, personal communications, and non-commercial personal remittances — without expanding the underlying substantive sanctions perimeter. The action is primarily a regulatory codification that provides compliance clarity for financial institutions and other US persons transacting with or near CAR.

On 4 August 2022 OFAC formally published in the Federal Register nine general licenses (GLs 17–25) that had previously been made available only on OFAC's website under EO 14065 (Donetsk/Luhansk regions) and, for GL 25, also EO 13685 (Crimea). GL 17, which authorised wind-down of Donetsk/Luhansk transactions, had already expired on 23 March 2022. GLs 18–25 remain in force and authorise a structured set of humanitarian and civil-society carve-outs — covering agricultural commodities, medicine and medical devices, telecommunications, official international organisation business, personal remittances, internet-based communications, NGO activities, civil maritime services, and journalistic activities — within the otherwise restricted territory of Crimea, the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), and the Luhansk People's Republic (LNR).

The US Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added 71 entities — 70 Russian and 1 Belarusian — to the Entity List, effective June 2, 2022, in direct response to Russia's further invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The entities were designated as military end users acquiring or attempting to acquire US-origin items in support of Russia's military, and are subject to a policy of denial for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Sixty-six entities receive a "footnote 3" military end-user designation, while five face outright denial with no license exceptions available beyond humanitarian food and medicine.