On February 18, 2019, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), pursuant to Executive Order (“EO”) 13850, designated Rosneft Trading S.A., the Swiss-incorporated, Russian-controlled oil brokerage firm, as a Specially Designated National (“SDN”) for operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy. OFAC also designated the President and Chairman of Rosneft Trading S.A., Didier Casimiro, as an SDN for purporting to act for or on behalf of, directly or…
On 30 January 2020, the Swiss Federal Council announced the first successful pilot transaction under the proposed Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), a payment mechanism designed to enable the delivery of humanitarian goods to Iran. The SHTA was developed by Switzerland since autumn 2018 with the cooperation of relevant US and Iranian authorities, along with selected Swiss and interested banks. Once finally agreed and implemented, it will become the first US OFAC-consented humanitarian trade arrangement, and will…
On January 24, 2020, 17 WTO members issued a statement agreeing to establish a temporary system for appealing WTO disputes. They reached an agreement during the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The WTO members include Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, the European Union, Guatemala, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Singapore, Switzerland and Uruguay. Canada and the EU had earlier established a separate interim appeals procedure. The statement indicated…
On 15 January 2020, the Federal Council opened a public consultation on the introduction of a simplified procedure for the Federal Customs Administration (FCA) to destroy fake products in small consignments. A new procedure aims to reduce the administrative effort by giving the authorities more leeway for their checks. These checks are essential – the importation of small consignments from Asia into Switzerland increased six-fold between 2014 and 2018. Swiss companies are particularly affected by…
On January 13, 2020, the US Department of the Treasury announced that it had delivered to Congress the semiannual Report on Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States. In this Report, Treasury reviewed and assessed the policies of 20 major US trading partners. Treasury also assessed developments over the last several months with China and its currency practices. The announcement said: The Report concluded that while the currency practices…
On 27 September 2019, theFederal Council announced the opening of consultation proceedings on amendments to the Embargo Act. The changes are intended to ensure that the ban on imports of firearms, weapon components, ammunition and other goods from Russia and Ukraine can continue. In addition, the Federal Council will no longer have to rely on provisions of the Federal Constitution in order to deal with similar cases. According to the announcement: The Ordinance on Measures…
On 15 May 2019, the Federal Council announced that it had opened consultation proceedings on the trade agreement with the United Kingdom and on an additional agreement extending the provisions of the trade agreement to the Principality of Liechtenstein. The agreements are intended to ensure to a large extent the continuation of existing trade relations after the UK’s departure from the European Union. The consultation will end on 5 September. The Federal Council will submit…
On 20 March 2019, the Swiss Federal Customs Administration (FCA) issued the following Information:
The Swiss Government recently announced that licences will no longer be permitted for war materials (“Kreigsmaterial”) exported to end users in Lebanon. Previously, a licence could be obtained for war materials supplied to groups responsible for the protection of Politically Exposed Persons, subject to a declaration of no re-export without written Swiss permission and on-site checks. The change in approach resulted from a post-shipment verification in 2018, which allowed only for the physical verification of…
On 11 February 2019, the Federal Council announced that Swiss Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin and the British Secretary of State for International Trade, Liam Fox, signed a bilateral trade agreement that will assure the continuation of economic and trade relations between Switzerland and the United Kingdom after the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union (Brexit). The announcement said, in part: