On June 18, OFAC Acting Director John Smith gave a presentation at a conference organized jointly by Venable LLP and the Stimson Center entitled “The Changing Sanctions Landscape: Past, Present, and Future.” In his speech Smith seemed to go out of his way to address some of the persistent critiques of OFAC that regularly emanate from the private sector and to thank the business and compliance communities for their efforts. Here are some of the more relevant passages:

As I always do when addressing an audience that includes the private sector, let me extend my heartfelt thanks for all the work that you do. Without aggressive and vigilant compliance, as well as sage counsel, our regulations would just be words on paper. Your hard work and our continued communications are vital.

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I’m sure that many of you who have examined our changes may note that they appear similar to the many requests and applications submitted to OFAC over the years. I hope it shows that we do listen, and that we take such valuable input into account when the foreign policy and national security circumstances are ripe for change.

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First, as I mentioned at the outset, we greatly value our relationships with the private and non-profit sectors. To ensure that we are doing our best to meet the needs that you all have, we commit to continuing to provide as much public and private guidance as we can

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I want to assure you that one of my goals in my position is to ensure that OFAC is as responsive as we can be, acknowledging that there are times when we will not be able to provide answers to every question.

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I’d like to end in a similar place to where I started, by thanking those of you in attendance for coming. Outreach is such a critical part of what we do, and we really appreciate having these opportunities to learn from those of you on the front line, as well as those of you who also do strategic analysis. So thanks again and I look forward to the panel discussion.

In our estimation, OFAC has in fact done a better job of communicating changes and providing guidance regarding new sanctions programs and/or provisions. In particular, the regular public guidance provided regarding updates to the Cuba sanctions programs has been an improvement. But there’s still quite a ways to go judging by the response times to requests for interpretative guidance.

However, it’s still no substitute for a formal sanctions advisory committee established pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committees Act. There needs to be an official venue, rather than the current ad-hoc information sharing, where the private sector can voice their concerns directly to officials from OFAC. This is a recommendation that was first put forward by the Judicial Review Commission on Foreign Assets Control – 15 years ago.

While a sanctions advisory committee currently exists at the Department of State, it has been an on-again, off-again affair that by all reports was not particularly useful. Moreover, its membership includes not a single representative from the Department of Treasury. As sanctions become an integral part of U.S. foreign policy, its incumbent upon Treasury to translate Smith’s words into greater action.

For those interested, here is a copy of the entire speech:

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