Global Sanctions Team Persuades US Government to Remove Sanctions on Part of World’s Largest Shipping Company

Latham’s global Sanctions Team successfully represented China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited (COSCO), a Shanghai-based transportation services conglomerate and Chinese state-owned entity, in its efforts to lift sanctions imposed by the US government against one of its oil tanker subsidiaries. On January 31, the US Department of State (State) and the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) removed a COSCO subsidiary and one of its former executives from OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) and Blocked Persons List.

On September 25, 2019, in the first sanctions action of its kind, State and OFAC jointly imposed sanctions on COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co., Ltd. (COSCO Tanker), based in Dalian, China. The removal of sanctions allows COSCO Tanker’s vessels to resume normal operations.

The Latham team was led by Washington, D.C. partner Eric Volkman, Beijing and Shanghai partner Hui Xu, and Washington, D.C. partner William McGlone, with assistance from Washington, D.C. partner Les Carnegie and counsel Rachel Alpert. The team also included Washington, D.C. associates Lauren Talerman, and Jason Despain, New York associate Emma Cohen, Washington, D.C. associate Allison Hugi, and Shanghai associate Sean Wu. The Latham team worked in partnership with Blank Rome partner Matthew J. Thomas.