In 2023, the European Union continued to use economic sanctions as one of its foreign policy tools, and not only in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine. New sanctions and adjustments to existing regimes reflect the EU’s...more
Current Situation in Iran - A historic and powerful popular movement—led by women in response to the murder of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the Iranian Morality Police in mid-September—is currently unfolding in...more
As of August 29, there is renewed optimism that the EU, the US, and Iran are on the verge of reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) to limit Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons in exchange for a lifting...more
Talks between the U.S. and Iran to revitalize the nuclear deal may have stalled but they are far from dead. There is still optimism that the agreement to limit Iran’s ability to make weapons-grade uranium, in return for a...more
The European Union Blocking Statute was originally adopted in 1996 to counteract US sanctions on Cuba, Iran and Libya, but following a memorandum of understanding entered into between the EU and the US, it has seldom been...more
Top EU Court Rules on the EU Blocking Regulation Against US Sanctions for the First Time - On December 21, 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), sitting as a “Grand Chamber” (a formation used, among...more
Over the past few weeks, we have been speculating on the international trends and tides we expect to see in the next four years under a new U.S. presidential administration. So that you can enjoy our prognostications (before...more
Report on Supply Chain Compliance 3, no. 19 (October 1, 2020) - The United States argued before the United Nations (UN) that Germany, France and the United Kingdom must support the U.S. demand to reimpose UN sanctions on...more
On 31 March 2020, the Governments of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (the so-called "E3") confirmed that the first transaction was completed through the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges ("INSTEX"),...more
France, Germany and the United Kingdom, known as the “E3”, announced on 14 January 2020 that they had triggered the dispute resolution mechanism under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”) due to concerns about...more
Europe has come up with a nifty plan to help Iran buy and sell stuff outside the reach of U.S. sanctions. The problem is that the plan is a fraud magnet. How do we know? It’s been tried before, and the fraud was epic. The...more
On May 8, 2019, following Iran's announcement that it intends to suspend certain nuclear proliferation-related commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the United States issued a new Executive order...more
How should we approach competing sanctions risks? Among the numerous regulatory compliance risks faced by financial institutions, economic and trade sanctions risks commonly receive a great deal of attention....more
With Brexit looming, the UK's autonomous sanctions policy is slowly taking shape. This month saw the publication of regulations setting out the post-Brexit UK sanctions regimes for Iran, Burma and Venezuela, which will come...more
2018 brought with it President Trump’s decision that the United States would withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”). That signaled the U.S.’s intention not only to reimpose trade sanctions on Iran but...more
• As of November 5, 2018, the United States concluded the second of two wind-down periods for re-imposition of U.S. sanctions on Iran following the May 8, 2018, announcement that the United States would cease participation in...more
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND TRADE - Dispute Resolution - WTO: The U.S. filed an objection against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for the $7 billion worth of retaliatory levies against U.S. exports to China (34 ITR...more
On November 5, 2018, the United States took steps to complete the U.S. withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”), under which the United States – along with its partners in the P5+1 – had previously...more
On November 5, 2018, applicable wind-down periods for certain transactions with Iran ended and the second and final set of U.S. secondary sanctions that had been lifted pursuant to the Iran nuclear deal – the Joint...more
Withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement triggers full implementation of US sanctions, including threat of “secondary” sanctions on non-US persons dealing with Iran. As reported in the Latham Client Alert dated May 10,...more
Economic sanctions, in one form or another, have been applied for centuries to effect change in the activities or policies of states, groups or individuals. Sometimes they are perceived as geopolitical economic weaponry,...more
Russia remained at the forefront this quarter, as the Trump Administration imposed new measures and markets reacted to the threat of additional, “crushing” sanctions from Congress on Russian sovereign debt. Meanwhile, EU...more
• On August 6, 2018, following President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the JCPOA, the U.S. government announced the reimposition of sanctions on Iran’s automotive sector, its trade in gold and precious...more
President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order “Reimposing Certain Sanctions with Respect to Iran” (“New Iran E.O.”) on August 6, 2018, authorizing the re-imposition – or “snap-back” – of various sanctions against dealings...more
The U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear proliferation deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”) and the resulting reimposition of sanctions against Iran, especially secondary sanctions, i.e., sanctions...more