Overview
WorldECR quoted Steptoe partners Ed Krauland and Meredith Rathbone in an article titled “Past Imperfect. Future Tense.” The article, published in the Sanctions 2017 issue, discusses various sanctions imposed in 2016 and what to expect next year with a new president and a changing Europe.
Mr. Krauland points out that even in the absence of Republican (threats/promises) to dismantle the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, significant obstacles endure anyway. “The Obama Administration had done a very good job of figuring out how to use the ‘grease of commerce’ industries to leverage up the effectiveness of sanctions. So, for example, finance, insurance and reinsurance, logistics – these are the industries that are essential to any form of trade and investment. Our sense is that they will continue to be pulled into US sanctions policy, and this will create compliance complexities for themselves and their customer bases.”
On the relaxing of US sanctions against Cuba, Ms. Rathbone points out that in terms of real change, “The reality is that things had been pretty stagnant for a while. Not just on the US side, but also on the Cuban side, with the Cuban government slow to grant authorizations to US companies wanting to come in. But with the death of Fidel Castro and significant trepidation regarding what the new US president might do, we have started to see some signs of life come to business deals that had appeared stalled.”
Steptoe is also profiled on page 28.
Read the full article at WorldECR.
