|
The Morning Risk Report: Use of Sanctions as U.S. Foreign-Policy Tool Would Likely Continue Under Biden
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden spoke at a drive-in campaign rally in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday. PHOTO: DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
Good morning. Economic and trade sanctions have become a top U.S. foreign-policy tool for the Trump administration, and that would be unlikely to change under his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.
Yet, with the coronavirus pandemic and the economic fallout taking center stage of the election season, Mr. Biden hasn’t said much about his specific plans for the U.S. sanctions regime, observers said. Many are looking to the Obama administration, when Mr. Biden was vice president and the use of sanctions policies picked up, for clues.
[Continued below...]
|
|
|
“The assumption is that sanctions is going to be the primary foreign policy tool,” said Judith Alison Lee, a partner at law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP who advises companies on sanctions compliance issues. “It’s very addictive; once any administration starts to use it and they see the power of this unilateral tool and immediate implications of sanctions, it’s very difficult to restrain yourself.”
On average, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on more than 900 entities or individuals each year for the last four years, nearly 80% more than the annual number of designations imposed by the Obama administration from 2009 to 2016, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of the data compiled by Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, which is owned by Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co.
|
|
|
|
From Risk & Compliance Journal
|
|
|
|
New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Linda Lacewell.
PHOTO: SASHA MASLOV FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
|
|
|
A New York state regulator set expectations for banks and other financial companies to prepare for risks arising from climate change, and the transition away from fossil fuels.
“Financial risks from climate change are unprecedented,” said Linda Lacewell, superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, in a letter sent to New York-based banks on Thursday.
Ms. Lacewell pointed to two dangers that analysts say banks and other financial companies face from climate change: physical risks and transition risks.
|
|
|
|
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday. New Treasury Department and State Department sanctions involve allegations that companies and individuals were helping Iran trade petroleum products. PHOTO: EVAN VUCCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
|
|
|
The Trump administration on Thursday rolled out another pre-election battery of sanctions and other punitive actions against Iran, blacklisting Iranian and Chinese energy companies and announcing forfeiture actions against two shipments of Iranian missiles recently seized by the U.S. Navy.
The joint action by the Justice, State and Treasury Departments is part of a strategy that former national-security officials say is intended to lock in as much diplomatic leverage from its four-year pressure campaign as possible in what could be the last days of this president’s tenure.
|
|
|
-
Private insurers must publish the prices they have negotiated with providers under a Trump administration rule aimed at lowering health-care spending by giving consumers more information about their out-of-pocket charges. The rule completed Thursday calls for gradually increasing the requirements.
-
A former Green Beret and his son can be extradited to Japan to face criminal charges that they helped former auto titan Carlos Ghosn flee that country last year hidden inside a musical-equipment box, the U.S. State Department ruled, according to court documents.
-
A Florida businessman pleaded guilty Thursday to charges that he duped potential investors in a fraud-insurance company and that he helped associates of Rudy Giuliani lie to federal election officials about a $325,000 donation to a super PAC supporting President Trump.
|
|
|
|
Toledo, Ohio, residents in a line waiting to cast ballots at an early voting location earlier this month. PHOTO: MATTHEW HATCHER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
Officials in states being closely contested this election say they are working with law-enforcement agencies to guard against potential voter intimidation and any threats posed by armed groups or individuals.
Jim Lane, the Republican mayor of Scottsdale, Ariz., said the potential for unrest has driven improved coordination between law-enforcement agencies, from municipal to county and state police. That coordination, while routine, is at a higher level “probably this year more than ever before,” Mr. Lane said. The concerns are shared by state and local officials of both parties.
|
|
|
-
Europe is once again at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with the continent now recording more and faster-rising deaths than the U.S. in an abrupt reversal of fortunes that is leading some governments to reimpose lockdowns they had hoped to avoid.
-
As governments once again shut businesses across Europe to stop a surge in coronavirus infections, acceptance of restrictions is fading and some small businesses are refusing to cooperate.
-
U.S. transportation officials and airlines are at odds with public-health officials over whether people who test negative for coronavirus before they travel should still have to quarantine when they arrive in the U.S., according to people familiar with the matter.
-
The European Central Bank intends to scale up its support of the eurozone’s economy, seeking to cushion the region from the fallout of a new wave of coronavirus infections that threatens to knock back a currency area that was still recovering from spring lockdowns.
|
|
|
|
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington.
PHOTO: CAROLINE BREHMAN/ZUMA PRESS
|
|
|
-
Russian-speaking criminal hackers have targeted several U.S. hospitals in recent weeks with a type of cyberattack potentially capable of disrupting critical patient care, in an apparent coordinated campaign that security experts warned could soon target hundreds more and lead to a loss of life during the Covid-19 pandemic.
-
Wisconsin Republican Party officials said computer hackers stole $2.3 million from an account they used to help finance President Trump’s re-election efforts in the battleground state. Chairman Andrew Hitt said Thursday the party noticed suspicious activity about a week ago and notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
|
|
|
|
If Joe Biden wins the election, he has promised to create a diverse cabinet that “looks like the country.” PHOTO: ANGELA WEISS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
Senior advisers and allies of Joe Biden have been bombarded with emails, texts and phone calls from Democrats looking for jobs in a potential Biden administration as the jockeying for key positions shifts into high gear ahead of the election.
Mr. Biden, long superstitious about elections, has so far avoided making detailed plans about who will serve in his administration if he wins, according to people familiar with the matter, leading to a waterfall of speculation, but little concrete information about what his cabinet and administration might look like. A Biden transition official said he isn’t making any personnel decisions pre-election.
If Mr. Biden wins, his team will have to fill thousands of positions across the federal government.
|
|
|
|
|
|