§ 589.214 Exempt transactions.
(a) Personal communications. The prohibitions contained in this part do not apply to any postal, telegraphic, telephonic, or other personal communication that does not involve the transfer of anything of value.
(b) U.S. intelligence activities. The prohibitions contained in this part do not apply to activities subject to the reporting requirements under title V of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3091 et seq.), or any authorized intelligence activities of the United States.
(c) Activities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The prohibitions contained in this part do not apply to activities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), including the supply by any entity of the Russian Federation of any product or service, or the procurement of such product or service by any contractor or subcontractor of the United States or any other entity, relating to or in connection with any space launch conducted for NASA or any other non-Department of Defense customer.
(d) Importation of goods. The prohibitions contained in this part do not apply to the importation of any goods that would otherwise be prohibited solely because of the interest of a person whose property and interests in property are blocked solely pursuant to § 589.201(a)(6)(i), (ii), (iii), (iv), or (v). For the purposes of this paragraph (d), the term “good(s)” means any article, natural or manmade substance, material, supply or manufactured product, including inspection and test equipment, and excluding technical data.
(e) Official business. The prohibitions contained in §§ 589.201(a)(5), 589.206, 589.207, and 589.208 do not apply to transactions for the conduct of the official business of the United States Government by employees, grantees, or contractors thereof.
Note 1 to paragraph (e). See § 589.510 for a general license authorizing transactions for the conduct of the official business of the United States Government not otherwise exempt.
1) For commentary on this provision, and in particular the significance of the absence of the “travel” and “informational materials” exemptions, see comments to 520.205. The same analysis applies here (note that the "reserved" definitional provision at 589.319 is obviously--note the alphabetical order of subpart C--reserved for "Information or informational materials". The informational materials and travel exemptions apply notwithstanding the absence of any explicit mention of those exemptions in this provision. There is also a humanitarian donations exemption for the non-blocking portion of the Crimea embargo that applies directly from IEEPA notwithstanding that it is not mentioned explicitly here. Note in addition that 589.201 of the URSR explicitly states, for the first time in regulatory text, that "[t]he prohibitions...apply except to the extent provided by statutes, or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this part, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted prior to the effective date." See General Note on the Applicability of IEEPA/TWEA Exemptions in EOs and Sanctions Regulations not Specifically Mentioning Them. That language explains why the standard IEEPA exemptions apply notwithstanding that they are omitted from the "exempt transactions" provision of the URSR.
2) The official business exemption implements section 7 of EO 13685. The cross reference to the official business GL at 589.510 applies to authorities incorporated into the URSR that do not contain official business exemptions.
3) The exemptions for "U.S. intelligence activities" and "Activities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration" appear to be implementations of section 236 and 237 of Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which would apply to designations made pursuant to section of 10 of SSIDES, as amended by section 228 of CAATSA. OFAC typically treats "exempt transactions" provisions such that transactions are only explicitly identified as exempt if the EO or statute being implemented removes jurisdiction over such transactions from OFAC's. In this case, the intelligence and NASA exemptions appear to be an "over implementation" of CAATSA, since they suggest that these exemptions apply even to, for example, EO 13660. For this to be the case, OFAC would need to regard all transactions otherwise prohibited by EO 13660 to be prohibited pursuant to CAATSA. It is possible that OFAC regards section 222 (Codification of sanctions relating to the Russian Federation) of CAATSA such that all transactions prohibited by any codified sanctions provision are also prohibited by CAATSA, but if that were the case, OFAC should have amended web-only GLs, such as Ukraine General License Number 4, that made no reference to CAATSA as an authority.
4) The importation exemption at 589.214(d) implements section 8 of SSIDES. As of 5-4-22, the exemption has no practical effect. Refer generally to General Note on "Import Exceptions" in Certain Program-Specific Sanctions Statutes.