Taking Additional Steps To Address the National Emergency With Respect to the Situation in Nicaragua
Revises and expands the existing Nicaragua sanctions framework by amending Executive Order 13851 to add new grounds for asset blocking, broaden trade prohibitions, and authorize the Commerce Department alongside Treasury to impose restrictions on imports, exports, and investment.
Establishes that arrests or prosecutions targeting freedom of expression or press — and activity in Nicaragua's gold sector — are now sanctionable, while new trade prohibitions on U.S. imports, exports, and investment require further agency determinations to take effect.
What this order does
What it orders
The order amends Executive Order 13851, the 2018 Nicaragua national-emergency sanctions order, on several fronts. It adds the arrest or prosecution of individuals — including journalists and media outlets — for exercising freedom of expression or assembly as a new basis for blocking a person's property and assets. It expands the list of sanctionable parties to include anyone operating in Nicaragua's gold sector or other sectors designated by Treasury. It also inserts four new categories of trade prohibition: importing Nicaraguan-origin products into the United States, exporting items from the United States to Nicaragua, making new U.S. investments in Nicaragua, and facilitating equivalent transactions by foreign persons — all subject to further determinations by the Secretaries of Treasury and Commerce.
The actual scope of these new trade prohibitions is not fixed on the order's face; each takes effect only when Treasury or Commerce issues sector-specific determinations in consultation with the Secretary of State. The order also adds the Commerce Department as a co-equal implementing authority alongside Treasury, authorizes both to promulgate rules and redelegate functions, and updates the reporting-to-Congress provision accordingly.
Who it affects
Nicaraguan government officials and entities whose assets may be blocked, U.S. persons and companies with trade or investment ties to Nicaragua, media outlets and journalists targeted by the Nicaraguan government, and U.S. importers of Nicaraguan-origin goods or exporters to Nicaragua.
Why it matters
U.S. businesses and individuals with commercial ties to Nicaragua face a broader sanctions landscape — import, export, and investment activity may be prohibited once Treasury and Commerce issue implementing determinations. Nicaraguans facing government persecution for speech or press activity become explicitly eligible for U.S. sanctions protection.
What must happen and when
How the order is supposed to work
The amended order works in two layers. Immediate blocking authority is expanded: Treasury can now designate persons connected to freedom-of-expression crackdowns or gold-sector activity without additional rulemaking. The new trade prohibitions are triggered separately — each category (imports, exports, investment) takes effect only when Treasury or Commerce issues a formal sector determination in consultation with State. Commerce gains co-equal rule-making and redelegation authority, broadening the implementation chain. All executive agencies must take appropriate measures within their own authority to carry out the order.
Actions and deadlines
- Determine which Nicaraguan-origin products are subject to U.S. import prohibition
- Determine which items exported from the United States to Nicaragua are subject to prohibition
- Determine which sectors of the Nicaraguan economy are subject to new U.S. investment prohibition
- Submit recurring and final reports to Congress on the Nicaragua national emergency
Agencies directed to act
Authority and reach
What this order changes
Amends Executive Order 13851