Treasury Issues Quarterly List of Boycotting Countries
On October 5, 2004, the Treasury Department published in the Federal Register its quarterly list of lcountries that may require participation in, or cooperation with, an international boycott, as defined by section 999(b)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
Treasury has advised that the following countries may require participation in, or cooperation with, an international boycott: Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Republic of Yemen.
While Iraq was removed from the list of boycotting countries in mid-2003, given that Iraq's sovereignty has been restored and reports of boycott requests being included in Iraqi Government tenders it is possible that Iraq will be returned to this list in the future. Thus, all transactions with Iraq and the other countries named above should be carefully reviewed for prohibited boycott language.
The Treasury Department's notice can be viewed at the following link:
a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/06jun20041800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2004/04-22366.htm.
For a primer on dealing with boycott requests, see the following article that was published in the Export Practitioner: www.djacobsonlaw.com/documents/June02ExPrac.pdf.
Labels: Boycotts