LONDON - The United States will target shipping companies that are in breach of sanctions and aggressively enforce measures across the globe to clamp down on such practices, a top U.S. official said on Wednesday.
COSCO Shipping Tanker , a subsidiary of China’s state-owned shipping group COSCO, was one of the companies blacklisted. Peyman, who was holding meetings with shipping officials in Europe, said the maritime supply chain was complex but companies needed to invest in more due diligence and take proactive measures to avoid being caught in potential sanctions breaches.
Peyman said insurance companies and banks could check the history of ships they covered or financed to see whether there were gaps in a vessel’s voyage history, which is logged through AIS tracking transponders, which may point to illicit and concealed activity.Last month, Washington gave temporary approval for companies to wind down transactions with the designated COSCO subsidiaries until Dec. 20.