FINAL RULES
PUBLISHED IN THE FEDERAL REGISTER DURING 1998
TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF FOREIGN ASSET CONTROL
FOREIGN ASSET CONTROL REGULATIONS
(31 CFR Part 500 et seq.)
NOTE: CHANGES TO THE FOREIGN ASSET CONTROL REGULATIONS LISTED BELOW ARE NUMBERED CONSECUTIVELY, BEGINNING IN JANUARY OF THE NEW YEAR.
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1. Office of Foreign Assets Controls: Regulations Prohibiting Transactions Involving the Shipment of Certain Merchandise Between Foreign Countries, Cuban Assets Control Regulations; Civil Penalty Administrative Hearings (63 FR 10321 on March 3, 1998)
Commentary: The Treasury Department has amended the Foreign Assets Control Regulations and the Cuban Assets Control Regulations to add procedures for the conduct of administrative hearings in civil penalty cases and for settlement of civil penalty cases in lieu of administrative hearings. A conforming amendment is made to the Transaction Control Regulations. The final rule is effective April 2, 1998.
2. Office of Foreign Assets Controls, Cuban Assets control Regulations: Family Remittances; Travel Remittances, Carrier Service Providers; Currency Carried by Travelers (63 FR 27348 on May 18, 1998)
Commentary: Pursuant to the President’s announcement of March 20, 1998, the Treasury Department is amending the Cuban Assets Control Regulations to limit the remittances to relatives in Cuba over a 3-month period. Rules relating to non-Cuban currency carried by Cubans returning from the United States to Cuba are amended to reflect this authorization. In addition, technical changes are made to rules relating to provision of emigration-related remittances and the licensing of cargo transported to Cuba by carrier service providers. This rule is effective May 13, 1998.
3. Office of Foreign Assets Control, Cuban Assets Control Regulations: Fully Hosted or Fully-Sponsored Travel and Restriction on Travel Transactions. (63 FR 27349 on May 18, 1998)
Commentary: In order to ensure effective enforcement of the prohibitions on travel-related transactions in Cuba, any person subject to U.S. jurisdiction determined to have traveled to Cuba without the authority of a general or specific license is subject to a rebuttable presumption that the traveler has engaged in prohibited travel-related transactions. In order to overcome this presumption, any traveler to Cuba who claims to have been fully hosted or fully sponsored, or not to have engaged in any travel-related transactions, may be asked by Federal enforcement agencies to provide a signed explanatory statement, accompanied by any relevant supporting documentation. This rule is effective May 13, 1998.
4. Office of Foreign Assets Controls, Burmese Sanctions Regulations (63 FR 27846 on May 21, 1998)
Commentary: The U.S. Department of Treasury is issuing the Burmese Sanction Regulations to implement Executive Order 13047 of May 20, 1997, "Prohibiting New Investment in Burma." The rule is effective on May 21, 1998 and is codified in a new part 537 to 31 CFR Chapter V.
5. Office of Foreign Assets Controls, Blocked Persons, Specially Designated Nationals, Specially Designated Terrorists, and Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers: Additional Designations. (63 FR 28896 on May 27, 1998)
Commentary: The Treasury Department is adding to Appendices A and B of 31 CFR chapter CV the names of 6 individuals and 21 entities that have been determined to play a significant role in international narcotics trafficking centered in Columbia or who have been determined to be owned or controlled by, or to act for on behalf of, other specially designated narcotics traffickers.
6. Office of Foreign Assets Controls, Blocked Persons, Specially Designated Nationals, Specially Designated Terrorists, and Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers: Addition of Sudanese Government Designations, Removal of Two Individuals and Unblocking of a Vessel (63 FR 29608 on June 1, 1998)
Commentary: The Treasury Department is adding the names of 62 entities which have been determined to act for or on behalf of, or to be owned or controlled by the Government of Sudan. In addition, the entries for two individuals previously designated as specially designated narcotics traffickers are being removed. The entry for a vessel is also being removed, as it is no longer considered to be property in which the Government of Cuba has an interest. Technical changes are also made to the notes to the appendices.
7. Office of Foreign Assets Controls, Cuban Assets Control Regulations; Iranian Transactions Regulations; Reporting and Procedure Regulations: Corrections (63 FR 35808 on July 1, 1998)
Commentary: The Treasury Department has published corrections to final regulations amending the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, published May 18, 1998 (63 FR 27349), the Iranian Transactions Regulations, published on August 4, 1997 (62 FR 41851), and the Reporting and Procedures Regulations, published on August 25, 1997 (62 FR 45098). These regulations are related to the prohibitions on travel-related transactions in Cuba, the payment of awards and settlements relating to the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague, and the consolidation and standardization of information collection provisions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
8. Office of Foreign Assets Controls, Sudanese Sanctions Regulations (63 FR 35809 on July 1, 1998)
Commentary: The Treasury Department has issued the Sudanese Sanction Regulations to implement the President’s declaration of a national emergency and imposition of sanctions against Sudan (Executive Order 13067). This rule adds a new Part 538 to the Code of Federal Regulations, implementing an embargo on the export of all products and technologies, except informational materials, food, medicine and other items to "relieve human suffering".
9. Department of the Treasury; List of Countries Requiring Cooperation With an International Boycott (63 FR 53491 on October 5, 1998)
Commentary: The Department of Treasury published a current list of countries that may require participation in, or cooperation with, an international boycott (within the meaning of section 999(b)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986). The countries include Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and The Republic of Yemen.
10. Office of Foreign Asset Control Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) Kosovo Sanctions Regulations (63 FR 54575 on October 13, 1998)
Commentary: The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is issuing the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) Kosovo Sanctions Regulations to implement Executive Order 13088 of June 9, 1998, "Blocking Property of the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Serbia, and the Republic of Montenegro, and Prohibiting New Investment in the Republic of Serbia in Response to the Situation in Kosovo." The Effective date of this rule is October 13, 1998.
11. Office of Foreign Assets Control, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia & Montenegro) and Bosnian Serb-Controlled Areas of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sanctions Regulations: Resolution of Claims Regarding Blocked Montenegrin Vessel Accounts (63 FR 59883 on November 6, 1998)
Commentary: The Office of Foreign Assets Control is amending the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia & Montenegro) and Bosnian Serb-Controlled Areas of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sanctions Regulations to authorize all transactions on and after December 7, 1998 with respect to bank accounts representing the proceeds of the sales of the following two blocked vessels: the M/V KAPETAN MARTINOVIC and the M/V BOR. U.S. persons are generally licensed to seek, obtain and have served on these blocked accounts writs of attachment during the ten-year period prior to the accounts’ unblocking if their claims are not settled with the vessels’ owners or agents.
12.Office of Foreign Assets Control Iranian Transactions Regulations: Reporting on Foreign Affiliates’ Oil-Related Transactions (63 FR 62940 on November 10, 1998)
Commentary: The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is amending the Iranian Transactions Regulations (31 CFR Part 560) to terminate the reporting requirement for U.S. subsidiaries’ Iranian petrochemical transactions and Iran-related sales of services (including insurance and financing) and goods (including oilfield supplies and equipment). This rule is effective on November 10, 1998.
13.Office of Foreign Assets Control Iraqi Sanctions Regulations (63 FR 62942 on November 10, 1998)
Commentary: The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is amending the Iraqi Sanctions Regulations (31 CFR Part 575) to permit U.S. persons to enter into executory contracts for the sale of oilfield parts and equipment to the Government of Iraq in conformity with United Nations Security Council Resolutions No. 1153 and 1175. This rule is effective on November 10, 1998.