In response to the conflict, the United States enacted several measures that remain in place today:
• In May 2021, Secretary of State
Antony Blinken announced visa restrictions for Ethiopian and Eritrean officials, military personnel, and other individuals
responsible for, or complicit in, undermining resolution of the crisis in Tigray.
The State Department did not announce the names of restricted individuals. The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) began implementing a policy of prohibiting the export of defense articles and services to Ethiopia.
• In August 2021, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), citing human rights abuses in Tigray, designated General
Filipos Woldeyohannes, the Eritrean army’s chief of staff, as a target for sanctions under
Executive Order 13818. President
Donald Trump had issued E.O. 13818 in 2017 as part of the
Global Magnitsky Act, authorizing sanctions against individuals responsible for human rights abuses and corruption around the world.
• In September 2021, President
Joe Biden issued
Executive Order 14046, authorizing sanctions against entities and individuals responsible for
widespread violence, atrocities, and serious human rights abuse
in Ethiopia.
OFAC did not yet designate any targets for sanctions under E.O. 14046. These sanctions later were codified in the Ethiopia Sanctions Regulations.
• In November 2021, DDTC formally amended the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), codifying DDTC’s policy of denying licenses for exporting defense articles or services
to or for the armed forces, police, intelligence, or other internal security forces of either Ethiopia or Eritrea.
• Also in November 2021, pursuant to E.O. 14046, OFAC designated four Eritrean entities and two Eritrean individuals as targets for sanctions.
The entities were:
° The Eritrean Defense Force;
° The People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ, Eritrea’s sole legal political party);
° The Hidri Trust (a holding company affiliated with PFDJ); and
° The Red Sea Trading Corporation (a business management company affiliated with PFDJ).
• The individuals were:
°
Abraha Kassa Nemariam, the head of the Eritrean National Security Office; and
°
Hagos Ghebrehiwet W Kidan, the economic advisor to the PFDJ and C.E.O. of the Red Sea Trading Corporation.
• In January 2022, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, citing human rights violations, terminated Ethiopia from the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act trade program, ending the country’s duty-free access to American markets.
(Zmeselo's addition: They removed all these hindrances for Ethiopia, only after the country showed interest in joining BRICS)
The program had generated employment for 100,000 Ethiopians and had earned the country $100 million annually.