August 7 2017
Earlier this week, on August 2, 2017, the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA or the Act) was signed into law by President Trump. The Act tightens existing sectoral sanctions on Russia, restricts the President’s ability to lift certain sanctions targeting Russia, creates new secondary sanctions that may impact non-US companies that support or invest in certain pipeline projects and introduces new designation-based sanctions programs. The Act also contains new sanctions against Iran and North Korea, many of which overlap with existing programs. We summarize in this alert the major changes to US sanctions and highlight the potential impact of the expanded sanctions regimes.