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Commerce Expands Export Controls on Members of Treasury's SDN List

On March 21, 2024, the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a rule (89 FR 20107) expanding BIS end-user controls on members of the List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List) maintained by the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

The SDN List includes individuals, entities, and groups from targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, persons engaged in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and others who present threats to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the U.S.  Sanctions programs are categorized under a variety of program tags.  U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in any transactions with SDNs without an OFAC license and must block property in which an SDN has an interest. OFAC licenses are required to conduct business with SDNs.

The new rule applies EAR export, reexport, and transfer (in-country) controls to fourteen SDN programs and consolidates those restrictions into EAR §744.8.  The fourteen affected programs include:

  • Seven related to Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus (Executive Orders 13405, 13660, 13661, 13662, 13685, 14024, and 14038);
  • Foreign Terrorist Organizations Sanctions Regulations;
  • Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations;
  • Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators Sanctions Regulations; and
  • Four related to narcotics trafficking and other criminal networks (EOs 13581 and 2 14059, the Narcotics Trafficking Sanctions Regulations, and the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations).

BIS also published a press release on the new rule.