U.S. SANCTIONS

Source: Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)

Sanctions and Export Control Restrictions for Entities and Individuals

Under U.S. sanctions laws and export control regulations, certain entities and individuals (both foreign and domestic) may be subject to trade sanctions, embargoes, and other restrictions on exports, re-exports, or transfers of U.S.-origin items.  In addition, certain countries may be subject to either comprehensive or targeted sanctions or export restrictions.

• Comprehensive sanctions prohibit nearly all exports and other business transactions without specific government authorization. (e.g., Cuba, Iran, North Korea).
• Targeted sanctions prohibit transactions related to specific goods, technologies, and services with specific sanctioned entities or individuals, or apply to certain industries or sectors of a country’s economy (e.g., the financial services, energy, mining, and defense and related material sectors of the Russian economy).

Comprehensively Sanctioned Countries

U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) maintains comprehensive economic sanctions programs that prohibit U.S. Persons from engaging in virtually all trade and financial transactions involving the following countries and regions:

• Cuba
• Iran
• North Korea
• Syria
• Ukraine (Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk)

In addition to the sanctions regulations administered by OFAC, the U.S. government maintains separate and overlapping export control regulations that prohibit virtually all exports and re-exports of U.S.-origin items (goods, software, and technology) to these comprehensively sanctioned countries/regions.

Limited Sanctions Programs

OFAC maintains more limited sanctions against a number of additional countries where sanctions may apply depending on entity/individual/organization/item/ or industry (i.e., sectoral sanctions). These countries are:

• Belarus
• Burundi
• Central African Republic
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Iraq
• Lebanon
• Libya
• Mali
• Nicaragua
• Russia
• Somalia
• South Sudan
• Ukraine
• Venezuela
• Yemen
• Zimbabwe

Restricted Parties Lists

In addition to countries, the U.S. government also maintains certain sanctions and other trade restrictions against lists of individuals, entities, and organizations that have violated U.S. export control laws, have participated in proliferation activities, or have been determined to be terrorists, terrorist organizations affiliated with certain sanctioned governments, and for other reasons.  These lists are collectively known as “Restricted Parties Lists.”  The most significant of these are OFAC’s lists of sanctioned entities and individuals, including the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List, Foreign Sanctions Evaders (FSE) List, and the Sectoral Sanctions Identification (SSI) List.

U.S. “Secondary” Sanctions

In addition, the U.S. government implements “secondary” sanctions, which specifically are intended to broaden the reach of U.S. sanctions programs extraterritorially to impact foreign persons that provide material support to certain sanctioned countries, entities and individuals.  These secondary sanctions vary widely by sanctions program and activity.

Arms Embargoes for Defense Articles, Technical Data, and Defense Services

The U.S. Department of State Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) administers the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).  The ITAR regulate the export, re-export, transfer, temporary import and brokering of defense articles, as well as technical data and defense services classified on the U.S. Munitions List (USML).  DDTC maintains arms embargoes for ITAR items against certain foreign countries (Proscribed Countries).

The Proscribed Countries are:

• Afghanistan
• Belarus
• Burma (Myanmar)
• Central African Republic
• China
• Cuba
• Cyprus
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Eritrea
• Haiti
• Iran
• Iraq
• Lebanon
• Libya
• North Korea
• Somalia
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Syria
• Venezuela
• Zimbabwe

Summary all Countries subject to U.S. sanctions

1. Afghanistan
2. Belarus
3. Burma (Myanmar)
4. Burundi
5. Central African Republic
6. China
7. Cuba
8. Cyprus
9. Democratic Republic of Congo
10. Eritrea
11. Haiti
12. Iraq
13. Iran
14. Lebanon
15. Libya
16. Mali
17. Nicaragua
18. North Korea
19. Russia
20. Somalia
21. South Sudan
22. Sudan
23. Syria
24. Ukraine (Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk)
25. Venezuela
26. Yemen
27. Zimbabwe