A few days after the 12th package of sanctions in connection with the EU's Russia embargo pursuant to Regulation 833/2014 came into force, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) published an information paper on its website to support companies in dealing with trade-related sanctions.
The BMWK would like to point out that the information is intended to support market participants in acting in accordance with EU sanctions, in particular the sanctions against Russia. The published information is intended to provide information on risks that must be taken into account as part of the corporate due diligence obligations required under sanctions law. The information is to be understood as non-binding and non-exhaustive guidance on sanctions compliance for exporting companies. They reflect the currently known findings on sanction-relevant risk indicators, are regularly evaluated and, if necessary, their content is adapted.
Trade data indicates that sanctioned goods are being exported to a considerable extent from the EU, and therefore also from Germany, to certain third countries and re-exported from there to Russia. The effectiveness of the sanctions depends, among other things, on whether it is possible to effectively prevent these procurement and circumvention activities.
The information paper is intended to support the enforcement measures of the competent authorities, which focus in particular on individuals and companies that deliberately and knowingly circumvent sanctions. However, according to the BMWK's findings, negligent behaviour also plays a major role in the success of Russian procurement. This is because, in the opinion of the BMWK, circumvention of sanctions can also be facilitated, for example, by incomplete information procurement and inadequate internal training of employees.
The paper therefore emphasises the following key points for the risk assessment of such transactions in several sections in order to support the prevention of sanctions evasion:
I. Objectives
II. Due diligence obligations
III. Risk indicators
a. Fundamentals of risk analysis
b. Customer-related risk analysis
c. PProduct-related risk analysis
d. Geographical and transaction-related risk analysis
IV. Disclosure of sanction-relevant information to authorities
Link:
Guidance paper Supporting companies in dealing with goods-related sanctions
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