OFAC Update

An article in the September/October 2004 issue of the ASPB News reported that the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had forbidden the provision of copyediting services to authors living in embargoed nations including Sudan, Cuba, and Iran. Many publishers, as well as the Association of American Publishers, were vocal in their objections to the ruling, and on February 9, 2004, a meeting was convened in Washington, DC, to bring together publishers and a representative from OFAC. After several more rounds of meetings, Treasury ruled on December 15, 2004, that trade embargoes do not restrict publishing. This ruling means that U.S. publishers, including scholarly societies and university presses, do not have to apply for a license to edit or publish works by authors in Cuba, Iran, or Sudan (no other embargoed nations were specifically mentioned).