Overview

On July.26, 2023, Ficient Global held the Webinar “Current Sanctions Against Russia by Major Countries, Its Trends and Chinese Enterprises’ Concerns”. We invited David A. Wolber, registered foreign lawyer (New York)/of counsel from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP (Hong Kong). David assists clients around the world in understanding and navigating complex legal, compliance, and other risks arising out of the interplay of various international trade with particular expertise advising clients on economic and trade sanctions, export controls, foreign direct investment controls/CFIUS, anti-money laundering (“AML”) and anti-bribery and anti-corruption (“ABC”) laws and regulations.

In the one-hour webinar, David talked about Russia sanctions and export controls, Russia countermeasures, US sanctions and export controls and considerations for companies in China.

Contents

1. Overview of Sanctions and Export Controls on Russia

First of all, David introduced the global sanctions on Russia, which are unprecedented multilateral controls designed to undermine Russia military capability, including by reducing revenue from energy and industrial sectors. The sanctions including:

• Widespread SDN Designations

• Comprehensive Sanctions on Non-Government Controlled Regions of Ukraine

• Sanctions Targeting the Russian Energy Sector and Trade in Russian Oil and Petroleum Products (price cap)

• Sanctions Targeting Financial Sector

• Prohibited New Investment

• Import Bans

• Sector-specific Sanctions

• Debt & Equity Restrictions on Targeted Companies

2. A New Era of Sanctions and Russia Context

Next, David pointed out that this is a new era of sanctions. Things changed including:

• Increased multilateralism and number of sanctioning actors.

• Sheer number of actions and ever -increasing use of sanctions and other measures.

• Move from actions targeting smaller, isolated pariah states to large global economies, sectors and companies.

• Specialized programs adding to complexity and overcompliance.

David also analyzed the trends in US and UK sanctions policy. On a bipartisan basis, the United States continues to rely on economic sanctions as a primary tool of diplomacy and national security. The UK has yielded the full power of its financial services sector when implementing sanctions measures in relation to the Russia crisis.

3. Russia Countermeasures

And then, David talked about Russia’s countermeasures: Federal Law No. 127-FZ “On Measures (Countermeasures) in Response to the Unfriendly Actions of the USA and/or Other

Foreign States” dated June 4, 2018 (“Counter-Sanctions Law”).

List of “unfriendly states”:

U.S., EU member states, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Norway, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Ukraine, and many more.

Dozen of measures including:

• Foreign currency expatriation controls (e.g., debtors and purchasers of natural gas; foreign currency deposits and transfers)

• Loan and asset transfer restrictions

• “Exit taxes”

• Sanctions and visa bans

4. Spotlight on US Sanctions and US Export Controls

Next, David focused on US sanctions and export controls. David gave an overview of the structure of US sanctions and talked about embargoes, prohibited parties, blocked interest, 50% rule, exceptions and authorizations, secondary Sanctions and other important concepts related to sanctions.

Export controls administered by the Commerce Department, Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) were also discussed in the webinar.

5. Considerations for Companies in China

At last, David analyzed Russia-based risks considerations for Chinese companies.

• Identifying potential applicability of U.S. or other foreign law

• Identifying ‘red flags’ for possible diversion or evasion by Russia parties and end users (see sample guidance documents on following slides)

• Review contractual provisions with banking partners and other counterparties for potential commercial and contractual risk.

• Consider relevant China legal and risk implications of anti-foreign sanctions law, blocking statute (if/when used) or Unreliable Entity List restrictions.

以上是本次Webinar的精彩内容。如果大家希望了解更多有关出口管制和制裁的内容，可以关注以下活动：

8月18日 出口管制风险识别及出口管制合规体系的建立与合规管理

8月23日 Analysis of Current Situation and Trends of US Export Control/Sanctions

8月25日 美国出口管制制度解析及相应的贸易合规筹划

9月14-15日 第十一届全球贸易合规（中国）峰会

大家也可以通过锋信官网和公众号了解后续课程，期待大家的参与。我们也将持续带来海关政策法规资讯，欢迎大家关注。