Sanctions: A Guide for Owners and Charterers

Sanctions are an ever more popular tool used by the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and individual states as a means of achieving foreign and economic policy goals.

It is not just the number of different sanctions programmes that creates challenges. The pace of change, with amendments to sanctions programmes on an almost daily basis, means that knowledge needs to be constantly refreshed. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has increased the challenge of ensuring compliance as we try to navigate through perhaps the most complex sanctions ever introduced.

Sanctions, and the enforcement of sanctions, are also increasingly targeting the maritime and insurance industries.

This focus on the maritime and insurance industries means that sanctions will inevitably affect your day-to-day business. The consequences of non-compliance can be severe. It is essential that you understand the risks and put in place measures to reduce and manage those risks.

This guide is split into three sections:

Firstly, we have put together an introduction to sanctions and how we suggest you approach sanctions issues and questions.

Secondly, we have set out some thoughts on due diligence and steps that you should consider taking to try to prevent any inadvertent breaches of sanctions.

Thirdly, we have included quick reference guides to the sanctions imposed by the EU and U.S. against the following countries:

• Iran

• North Korea

• Cuba

• Russia

• Syria

• Venezuela

There are also other countries subject to UN, EU, UK and/or U.S. sanctions, and we suggest you refer to our Sanctions Regimes document for further information.