Cases and Deals
Case

Blank Rome Represents COSCO Shipping to Win Removal of U.S. Trade Sanctions

Blank Rome’s maritime and international trade team successfully represented COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co. Ltd. following its September 25, 2019 designation by the Department of State as a target of trade sanctions. On January 31, 2020, the sanctions were lifted and the COSCO tanker operator was removed from the list of Specially Designated Nationals, maintained by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The COSCO designation, one of the largest and most closely watched sanctions cases of the Trump Administration, was a unique example of the State Department exercising its own sanctions designation authority, which exists alongside the more common Treasury Department sanctions programs. The case was part of a continuing trend of heightened trade sanctions focus by the Administration on the ocean shipping and energy supply chain sectors.

The Blank Rome team was led by Matthew J. Thomas, and worked in partnership with the trade sanctions team at Latham & Watkins.