877. Can U.S. and non-U.S. persons provide humanitarian assistance in response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in Yemen following the designation of Ansarallah?
Yes. U.S. persons may continue to provide humanitarian goods or assistance to the Yemeni people in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in Yemen, consistent with U.S. sanctions. With respect to certain activities that may result in transactions with or that provide benefits to Ansarallah, or an entity in which Ansarallah owns a 50 percent or greater interest, OFAC issued General Licenses (GLs) 9, 10, 11, and 12 under the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 594 (GTSR), the Foreign Terrorist Organizations Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 597 (FTOSR), and Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, authorizing the provision of certain goods and assistance by the U.S. government, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and individuals and entities delivering food, medicine, medical supplies, and humanitarian assistance to Yemen.
Pursuant to GL 12, U.S. persons may engage in all transactions and activities that are ordinarily incident and necessary to the exportation or reexportation of agricultural commodities, medicine, medical devices, replacement parts and components for medical devices, or software updates for medical devices to Yemen, or to persons in third countries purchasing specifically for resale to Yemen that involve the Ansarallah, or any entity in which Ansarallah owns a 50 percent or greater interest, subject to certain conditions. GL 12’s authorizations extend to the exportation or reexportation of items that may be used in the fight against COVID-19, including personal protective equipment and other items such as medical gowns, medical eye shields and goggles, surgical gloves, face shields, respirators and masks such as N95, N99, and N100 masks, oxygen generators, full face mask respirators including Powered Air Purifying Respirators, diagnostic medical imaging equipment, decontamination equipment, and ventilators.
For more information on what GLs 9, 10, 11, and 12 authorize, and non-U.S. persons’ exposure to sanctions for engaging in activity authorized by GLs 9, 10, 11, and 12, see FAQs 875 and 876.
Date Released
January 19, 2021
* 2/16/2021 UPDATE: on 2/16/2021, Ansarallah’s FTO and SDGT designations were removed. As a result, OFAC removed FAQ # 875, FAQ # 876, FAQ # 877, and archived Ansarallah-related GTSR/FTOSR General License 9, GTSR/FTOSR General License 10, GTSR/FTOSR General License 11, GTSR/FTOSR General License 12 and GTSR/FTOSR General License 13. See https://web.archive.org/web/20221004154552/https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/recent-actions/20210216.
1) See FAQ # 875 for the “General Background Comment Common to the 1/19/2020 FAQs and General Licenses Related to the Designation of Ansarallah as an FTO/SDGT.”
2) Refer to comment to GTSR/FTOSR General License 12 - Transactions Related to the Exportation or Reexportation of Agricultural Commodities, Medicine, Medical Devices, Replacement Parts and Components, or Software Updates.
3) GTSR/FTOSR General License 12 is an ag/med GL that contains definitions of “Medicine” and “Medical devices” that track the definitions of those terms, as found in the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act.
Here, OFAC specifies that GL 12 covers:
“items that may be used in the fight against COVID-19, including personal protective equipment and other items such as medical gowns, medical eye shields and goggles, surgical gloves, face shields, respirators and masks such as N95, N99, and N100 masks, oxygen generators, full face mask respirators including Powered Air Purifying Respirators, diagnostic medical imaging equipment, decontamination equipment, and ventilators.”
The implication would appear to be that the items referred to above are considered by OFAC to fall within the scope of the TSRA definitions of “medicine.” And “medical devices.” This was initially suggested to be the case in Fact Sheet: Provision of Humanitarian Assistance and Trade to Combat COVID-19. Note that the qualifications in the Fact Sheet, i.e. the word "certain," preceding "certain ventilators," "certain diagnostic medical imaging equipment" and "certain decontamination equipment," do not appear in this FAQ. This is presumably intentional, given that the text is in all other ways substantively identical to the text in the Fact Sheet. It may have been that "certain" caused unwanted confusion as to what types of ventilators, diagnostic medical imaging equipment and decontamination equipment qualified as "medical devices."