In response to opening the consulate of the Republic of Nicaragua in the temporarily occupied Crimea, on 2 February 2021 the Parliament of Ukraine for the first time in its history approved sectoral sanctions against the Republic of Nicaragua (“Sectoral Sanctions”). The Sectoral Sanctions are effective for a period of five years and include, in particular, the following restrictions: prohibition of export to and import from Nicaragua of coffee, tea, mate tea, spices, fruits, nuts,…
On September 3, 2020, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice announcing the effective date of modifications to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) concerning the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). The United States, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua (CAFTA-DR countries) are parties to the Harmonized System Convention. Because changes to the Convention are…
On 24 June, the Swiss Government decided to impose coercive measures in response to the current situation in Nicaragua. Switzerland is therefore joining the European Union in imposing sanctions on Nicaragua due to ongoing violations against human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Our previous blog post on the EU’s recent imposition of sanctions is available here. The Swiss Federal Council has issued an Ordinance imposing financial and travel sanctions against six persons with ties…
On March 5, 2020, pursuant to Executive Order 13851 of November 27, 2018 and the Nicaragua Human Rights and Anticorruption Act of 2018, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) further escalated sanctions against Nicaragua by naming the Nicaraguan National Police (“NNP”) and three NNP commissioners as Specially Designated Nationals (“SDNs”), citing serious human rights abuses. OFAC previously named other officials of the NNP as SDNs in 2018 and 2019, also citing human rights abuses. The press release issued by…
On February 7, 2020, the US Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a document announcing the country-by-country reallocations of 78,071 MTRV of the fiscal year (FY) 2020 in-quota quantity of the World Trade Organization (WTO) tariff-rate quota (TRQ) for imported raw cane sugar from those countries that stated they do not plan to fill their FY 2020 allocated raw cane sugar quantities. See the notice for country-by-country reallocations.
On December 23, 2019, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice setting the US dollar procurement thresholds to implement certain US trade agreement obligations, as of January 1, 2020, for calendar years 2020 and 2021. Executive Order 12260 requires the USTR to set the US dollar procurement thresholds for application of Title III of the Trade Agreements Act of 1979, as amended (TAA; 19 U.S.C. 2511 et…
On December 6, 2019, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice of its determination of the trade surplus in certain sugar and syrup goods and sugar-containing products of Chile, Morocco, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Colombia and Panama. The level of a country’s trade surplus in these goods relates to the quantity of sugar and syrup goods and sugar-containing products for…
On 14 October 2019, the Council of the European Union announced that it adopted a framework for targeted restrictive measures in view of the situation in Nicaragua. The press release stated: This framework provides for the possibility of imposing targeted and individual sanctions against persons and entities responsible for human rights violations or abuses or for the repression of civil society and democratic opposition in Nicaragua, as well as persons and entities whose actions, policies…
On September 4, 2019, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published in the Federal Register a final rule adding regulations (31 C.F.R. Part 582 – Nicaragua Sanctions Regulations) to implement Executive Order 13851 of November 27, 2018 (“Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Nicaragua”). OFAC intends to supplement these regulations with a more comprehensive set of regulations, which may include additional interpretive and definitional guidance, general licenses, and statements of…
On April 17, 2019, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) continued its escalation of sanctions against Venezuela and Nicaragua through the designation of additional parties as Specially Designated Nationals (“SDNs”). OFAC issued two Venezuelan general licenses (“GLs”), amended certain Venezuelan GLs, and issued one FAQ, as further described below. A summary of OFAC’s measures is available here, and a related press release issued by the White House is available here.