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5. Embargoed Countries and Entities (Part 746)
Export Control Program Description and Licensing Policy
The United States maintains comprehensive economic embargoes against Cuba, Iran, Iraq,
Libya, North Korea and Sudan. (These are six of the seven countries designated by the
Secretary of State as state sponsors of international terrorism.) The United States also
maintains arms embargoes on Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia and the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and an arms and other commodity embargo on
UNITA (in Angola).
On July 14, 1998, the United States imposed an arms embargo on the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) in reaction to the use of excessive force by Serbian
police forces against civilians in Kosovo and the acts of violence by the Kosovar Albanian
extremists and in compliance with United States obligations under United Nations Security
Council Resolution 1160. Supplementing the arms ban maintained by the Department of
State, the Department of Commerce maintains new license requirements and a policy of
denial on the export on arms-related items and “crowd control” items that could be used in
support of terrorist activities or to repress civilian populations. “Crowd Control” items
consist of all items already controlled for crime control reasons plus three new U.N.-based
controls on water cannons (ECCN 0A989), bomb detection equipment (ECCN 2A993)and
explosives (ECCN 1C998).
The Department of Commerce and the Department of the Treasury jointly administer the
trade embargoes against Cuba and North Korea, under the Trading With the Enemy Act
of 1917, the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, and other statutes. Commerce licenses U.S.
exports and reexports to both countries; Treasury licenses travel by U.S. persons to Cuba
and North Korea, and financial transactions by U.S. persons with those countries.
The Department of the Treasury administers the embargoes against Iran, Iraq, Libya,
Sudan and UNITA in Angola under the International Emergency Economic Powers