A Federal Register notice is scheduled to be published tomorrow in which the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announces the issuance of a general license for the export of food to Iran and Sudan. Previously, although the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (“TSRA”) authorized the export of agricultural products, medicine and medical devices to Iran and Sudan, those exports required specific one-year licenses from OFAC. The general license does not cover sales to military or law enforcement purchasers.

The general license specifically covers “food” which is a subset of agricultural products. The new rules will define food as

items that are intended to be consumed by and provide nutrition to humans or animals … ,
including vitamins and minerals, food additives and supplements, and bottled drinking water, and seeds that germinate into items that are intended to be consumed by and provide nutrition to humans or animals.

Items that are agricultural products but not food will still require licenses.

The rules make some specific exceptions to the definition of food, including, not surprisingly, castor beans. Thriller enthusiasts and news junkies will understand this exception: castor beans are used to manufacture the highly powerful poison ricin (although Iran can easily grow castor beans or import them from other countries other than the United States.) Also excluded are Rosary/Jequirity peas, the source of ricin’s more potent cousin abrin, which although more powerful than ricin is not known, according to the CDC, to have been weaponized or used in terrorist attacks.

My favorite part of the new rule is the exclusion of alcoholic beverages from the general license for Iran. I have not figured out whether this exclusion is made from ignorance, Puritanism or a desire by OFAC to enforce Islamic law. It should probably come as no surprise to anyone with even a passing acquaintance with Iran or Islam that alcoholic beverages are illegal in Iran and that people trying to import them into Iran are subject to being shot or sentenced to prison.

UPDATE: This post has been updated to correct a mistake I made in reading the new rule which does in fact permit export under general license of food to the Government of Iran and to purchasers outside Iran for export to Iran. My apologies for any confusion.

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