Case No. CU-2014-307603-1
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Dear Mr. [ ]:
This responds to your request of February 7, 2014, (the “Application”) to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), seeking (1) an advisory opinion as to the meaning of the terms “intergovernmental organization of which the United States is a member” and “international organization” as those terms were used in section 515.562 of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 515 (CACR); and (2) interpretive guidance as to whether the organizations listed in the Application fall within the parameters of the term “intergovernmental organization of which the United States is a member or holds observer status” according to the provisions of the general license that currently exists at section 515.562 of...
1) Sections 515.562(a) and (b) of the CACR both apply to certain transactions involving “any intergovernmental organization of which the United States is a member or holds observer status”. The term “intergovernmental organization” is frequently defined in a way that presupposes that the organization is “established by a treaty to pursue the common aims of [] member states” (see e.g. https://law.duke.edu/ilrt/int_orgs_1.htm). This notable guidance letter clarifies that, for purposes of 515.562(a) and (b), the term “intergovernmental organization” extends beyond organizations that “have a constituent treaty”. OFAC cites the examples of the “Bank for International Settlements” (BIS) which is a “an international financial institution which is owned by member central banks” (see https://www.bis.org/about). It is not clear what other “non constituent treaty” organizations OFAC world regard as covered; another good candidate would be the...