Sanctions, explained: practical tools for Dutch business

Sanctions and export controls have moved to the centre of day-to-day business. A single transaction can touch half a dozen regimes, lists change from one week to the next, and the companies most exposed are often the ones with no dedicated trade-compliance function. For many Dutch businesses, the hard part is not caring about compliance. It is knowing where to start.

On 19 November, the ICC Netherlands Business Integrity Commission launches two practical tools designed to close that gap, developed by its sanctions working group.

The first is a sanctions compliance guideline: a concise set of minimum standards that any company can use to build or sanity-check its own sanctions and export-control controls. It sets out what good looks like in plain terms, from screening customers and transactions to handling red flags, dual-use goods and the risk of becoming an unwitting back door. It is written to be used, not…