Treasury Lists Countries Requiring Cooperation With International Boycotts

The Treasury Department has published its current list of countries that require or may require participation in, or cooperation with, an international boycott. The countries included on this list are:

Iraq's Status Remains Under Review

The Treasury Department states that Iraq is not included in this list, but its status with respect to future lists remains under review by the Treasury Department.

Antiboycott Laws Discourage Compliance with Policies Counter to U.S.

The Bureau of Industry and Security states that the antiboycott laws were adopted to encourage, and in specified cases, require U.S. firms to refuse to participate in foreign boycotts that the U.S. does not sanction. The laws have the effect of preventing U.S. firms from being used to implement foreign policies of other nations that run counter to U.S. policy.

BIS states that the Arab League boycott of Israel is the principal foreign economic boycott that U.S. companies must be concerned with today. However, BIS notes that the antiboycott laws apply to all boycotts imposed by foreign countries that are unsanctioned by the U.S.

EAR Requires Quarterly Reporting on Requests to Comply with Int’l Boycotts

The Export Administration Regulations require U.S. persons to report quarterly requests they have received to take certain actions to comply with, further, or support an unsanctioned foreign boycott on form BIS 621-P for single transactions or BIS 6051P for multiple transactions received in the same calendar quarter.

Additional information, including a link to the antiboycott regulations, recent examples of boycott requests, etc., is available on BIS’ Web site at http://www.bis.doc.gov/complianceandenforcement/antiboycottcompliance.htm. In addition, BIS posts to its Web site (http://www.bis.doc.gov/) press releases of actions it takes against U.S. companies for certain violations of its antiboycott regulations.

(See ITT’s Online Archives or 11/12/09 news, (Ref: 09111225), for BP summary of Treasury’s previous list of countries requiring cooperation with international boycotts.)