U.S. Sanctions Five Companies for Iran Trade

The United States June 13 cited one U.S. and four Chinese companies as allegedly assisting Iranian ballistic missile programs. Any entities doing business with these designated companies risk having their U.S. assets frozen.

The recent moves flow from Executive Order 13382 that targets entities financially contributing to or supporting proliferation activities. (See ACT, September 2005.) This recent group of five companies brings the total number of entities identified by the U.S. government under the order to 25. The amount of assets frozen in connection with these designations is undisclosed.

The Chinese companies named June 13 by the Department of the Treasury were Beijing Alite Technologies Co., LIMMT Economic and Trade Co., China Great Wall Industry Corp., and the China National Precision Machinery Import/Export Corp. The penalized U.S. company, G. W. Aerospace, Inc. of Torrance, California, is a subsidiary of the China Great Wall Industry Corp.

“The companies targeted today have supplied Iran’s military and Iranian proliferators with missile-related and dual-use components,” stated Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey in a June 13 Treasury Department press release. Dual-use goods are items that can be used both for civilian and military purposes.

The Bush administration has previously penalized all of the Chinese companies. Prior to the latest penalties, they had collectively accumulated eight sanctions since 2001. Altogether, the Bush administration has sanctioned 33 Chinese entities for proliferation activities under U.S. law and executive orders, but these firms are the first to be punished under Executive Order 13382.

As it typically does, China protested the U.S. sanctions. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu told reporters June 15 that Beijing “does not allow any [corporation] or individual to engage in or support proliferation activities.” She said Washington had failed “to provide any convincing evidence” of wrongdoing and blasted the sanctions as “groundless and extremely irresponsible.”