Case No. IA-2016-337301-1
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Price Benowitz LLP 409
7th Street, NW Suite 200
Washington, DC 20004
Dear [ ]
This responds to your correspondence dated October 31, 2016, and supplemental correspondence dated June 22, 2017 (collectively, the “Application”), to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), on behalf of the DeLong Company, Inc. You requested interpretive guidance regarding the application of the term “all fertilizers” in the excluded agricultural commodities provision listed in 31 C.F.R. 560.530(a)(2)(ii) to Corn Gluten Meal (“CGM”) and Soybean Meal (“SBM”). The Application states that both CGM and SBM are two products that are historically and primarily used as animal feeds; however, in recent years, some organic home gardening websites have touted CGM and SBM as potential organic fertilizers, alongside bananas, green tea, coffee grounds, eggshells, and other products....
1) The ITSR GL at 560.530(a)(2)(i) broadly authorizes the exportation to Iran of certain “agricultural commodities,” but 560.530(a)(2)(ii) excludes from the scope of the GL “all fertilizers” that would otherwise meet the definition of “agricultural commodities”. This request for guidance is relatively straightforward. In essence the applicant asks whether a product that can serve as a fertilizer and is sometimes sold as a fertilizer is necessarily a “fertilizer” for the purposes of the “all fertilizers” exclusion at 560.530(a)(2)(ii). OFAC concludes, after almost four years, that the meaning of "fertilizers" in 560.530(a)(2)(ii) depends in part on the intended use of the product exported; i.e. it does not apply to all goods marketed as fertilizers (here Corn Gluten Meal and Soybean Meal).
2) Implicitly, OFAC determines that Corn Gluten...