Global Trade & Foreign Policy Insights

On February 4, 2025, President Donald Trump issued his second National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSM-2), enacting “maximum pressure on the Iranian regime.” While Iran is already subject to robust and comprehensive U.S. economic sanctions and embargos, NSM-2 focuses on denying Iran nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles, countering Iran’s development of weapons, and disrupting those who act on behalf of Iran (including Iran’s “surrogates” and “terror proxy groups”).

On Monday, July 20, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), added 11 Chinese companies to the U.S. Entity List. According to the press release issued by Secretary Ross, all 11 entities were “implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor, involuntary collection of biometric data, and genetic analyses targeted at Muslim minority groups from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region….”