Get the Compliance Help You Need! New Regulations Permit Payments to Lawyers.

February 15, 2022 by Leave a comment

In an effort to improve compliance with export laws, the United States will issue a new regulation that permits certain non-US payments to lawyers when you are seeking advice about export law compliance.

More to the point, the new regulation will permit payments that would have been otherwise blocked by the Treasury Department’s Weapons of Mass Destruction rules (blocked pursuant to 31 C.F.R. § 544.201(a)). This is consistent with other exceptions that appear in other parts of the regulations for legal services payments.

The new rule authorizes the provision of legal services, and it also authorizes the payment for the legal services. Although no license is required, the services subject to this provision must be reported annually to the Treasury Department. 31 C.F.R. § 544.508(b).

This generally applies to payments that come from outside of the United States. It helps to ensure that non-US companies that want to comply with U.S. export laws can get competent advice about compliance.

The new regulation is expected to go into effect when it gets published in the Federal Register. This is expected to happen tomorrow, February 15th.

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US Rolling Back Cuba Sanctions – Permits Expanded Payment Options

January 26, 2016 by Leave a comment

The Treasury Department will publish a final rule tomorrow that rolls back more of the Cuba sanctions by amending the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 515 (the “CACR”), to make it easier to receive payments for aircraft parts (and other commodities) that are sold to Cuban business partners.  The new rule comes out of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC).

The changes appear to permit US persons to receive funds from Cuban customers for non-agricultural export transactions.  This does not permit all transactions, but it does lay the foundation for receiving payment for transactions that that are permitted.  In September, we reported that ASA members wishing to sell aircraft parts to Cuban business partners could now apply for a license from the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) in order to legally sell and export such commercial aircraft parts.

Don’t forget that there is an OFAC general license that authorizes the export from the United States to Cuba in those cases where the export is already licensed or otherwise authorized by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). 15 C.F.R. § 515.533(a)(1). This means that if you can obtain a BIS license, and you do not run afoul of other US restrictions, then you do not need to obtain a separate OFAC license.

As of today, the forms of allowable payment are limited by the OFAC general license provisions (15 C.F.R. § 515.533(a)(2)); but when the new final rule is published, it is expected that payment and financing terms for authorized (e.g. licensed) exports will no longer be restricted.

In summary, aircraft parts being exported to Cuba will still be subject to BIS licensing, but the OFAC restrictions on payment methods will be removed by this new rule.

A draft of the final rule is available online now, and it is expected to be available at http://federalregister.gov/a/2016-01559 tomorrow or shortly after tomorrow, once it is published.

 

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