Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2675 actions· ✨ 91 recent

On 16 December 2022 the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2022/2474, the 9th package of restrictive measures against Russia, amending Regulation (EU) 833/2014. It entered into force on publication the following day (17 December 2022). The package extends the prohibition on new EU investment from the Russian energy sector to the Russian mining and quarrying sector, bans exports of aircraft and drone engines and their parts to Russia (and to any third country that could re-supply drones to Russia), adds 168 entities to the sectoral export- control annex covering chemicals, nerve agents, night-vision and radio- navigation equipment, electronics and IT components, and prohibits EU advertising, market-research, product-testing and technical-inspection services to Russia. A parallel Council Decision/Implementing Regulation designated a further 141 individuals and 49 entities to the EU asset-freeze and travel-ban list.

Canada amended the Special Economic Measures (Ukraine) Regulations via SOR/2022-202, registered and in force 29 September 2022, extending the DNR/LNR-style prohibitions to the Russian-occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Persons in Canada and Canadians abroad may not import, purchase or acquire goods from those regions, export or supply goods destined for them, make investments involving property located there, or provide financial, tourism or technical services to persons there. Contracts entered into before the in-force date had a 30-day wind-down period.

On 16 March 2022 the Swiss Federal Council adopted a total revision of the Ordinance on Measures against Belarus (SR 946.231.116.9), aligning Switzerland's autonomous sanctions with the EU's Belarus regime. It bans imports of Belarusian petroleum products, potassium chloride ("potash"), wood, iron and steel, and cement and rubber products; bans exports of goods used to manufacture or process tobacco products, weapons, surveillance equipment, and goods usable for Belarus's military or security development; and imposes financial sanctions including a ban on public financing for trade with or investment in Belarus, restrictions on securities/loans/ deposits, a prohibition on transactions with the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, and exclusion of listed Belarusian banks from SWIFT. The ordinance entered into force on the day it was adopted.

On 28 February 2022 the Swiss Federal Council decided to adopt the EU sanctions packages of 23 and 25 February 2022. As part of this, the import, export and investment ban in place for Crimea and Sevastopol since 2014 was extended to the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk that are not under Ukrainian government control. The Federal Council instructed the EAER to amend the existing ordinance in line with the EU measures.

SOR/2022-28, registered and in force on 24 February 2022, amends the Special Economic Measures (Ukraine) Regulations to prohibit persons in Canada and Canadians abroad from making investments involving property in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic regions, from importing, purchasing or acquiring goods from them, and from exporting goods destined for them. It also bars related financial services, technical assistance and tourism-related services. The prohibitions are territorial and apply to goods generally; no product list is itemised.

Council Regulation (EU) 2022/263 prohibits importing into the EU any goods originating in the non-government-controlled areas of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, and bans the sale, supply, transfer or export of Annex II goods and technology (transport, telecommunications, energy, resource extraction) to those areas. It also bars new investment and financing there. It entered into force the day after adoption, 24 February 2022.

Between 22 and 28 February 2022 — coinciding with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine — OFAC issued a Financial Services Sectoral Determination and four directives under Executive Order 14024 of April 15, 2021. Together they authorise designation of any person operating in Russia's financial sector, prohibit US persons from trading Russian sovereign debt, bar US banks from maintaining correspondent accounts for designated Russian financial institutions (Sberbank, Alfa-Bank and others), prohibit new investment in certain Russia-related entities, and block all transactions involving the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund, and the Ministry of Finance — effectively freezing approximately USD 640 billion in Russian sovereign reserves held in Western financial systems. The package was formally published in the Federal Register on 31 May 2022.

Executive Order 14065, signed 21 February 2022, prohibits new investment by US persons in the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republic (DNR/LNR) regions of Ukraine, bans the importation into the United States of any goods, services or technology from those Covered Regions, and bans exports, reexports, sales or supply to them by or from US persons. It also prohibits US-person approval, financing, facilitation or guarantee of transactions by foreign persons that would be barred if done by a US person. It expands the national emergency first declared in EO 13660.