Today, the Department of the Treasury is issuing a Fact Sheet to further clarify agricultural commodities (including fertilizer), agricultural equipment, or medicine relating to Russia are not the target of U.S. sanctions.
Treasury is also taking action to broadly expand the agricultural and medical authorizations in Russia-related General License (GL) 6B, including to now cover transactions related to agricultural equipment. This GL expansion further reiterates that U.S. sanctions on Russia in response to its unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine do not stand in the way of agricultural and medical trade.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has exacerbated acute and chronic food insecurity driven by conflict, climate change, and COVID-19. Putin’s war has strangled food and agriculture production, and he has used food as a weapon of war by destroying agricultural storage, processing, and testing facilities; stealing grain and farm equipment; and effectively blockading Black Sea ports. Estimates suggest that up to 40 million more people could be pushed into food insecurity this year as a result of Putin’s war in Ukraine and its spillover effects.
Since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine in February, the United States has provided $2.8 billion to scale up emergency food operations in countries impacted by the food security crisis. President Biden recently announced the United States is providing an additional $2.76 billion in funding for acute and near- to long-term humanitarian and food security needs around the world.
The United States strongly supports efforts by the United Nations to bring both Ukrainian and Russian grain to world markets and to reduce the impact of Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine, which has upended global food supplies and raised food prices around the world. Agricultural and medical trade are not targets of the sanctions imposed by the United States on Russia for its unjustified war against Ukraine.
Read the full OFAC Food Security Fact Sheet: Russia Sanctions and Agricultural Trade.
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