The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation published updates to its sanctions listings. For its ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qaida listings, OFSI amended the information for Noureddine Ben Ali Ben Belkassem Al-Drissi. For Xinjiang, China-related restrictions, the agency amended the information for Mingguo Chen, Mingshan Wang, Junzheng Wang and Hailun Zhu.
The United Kingdom sanctioned Myanmar Economic Corp. for its role in making funds available to the Myanmar military and its association with senior military figures, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced in an April 1 news release. MEC becomes the latest to be sanctioned following the military coup in the Southeast Asian nation and the subsequent crackdown on peaceful protests (see 2102190057). The conglomerate's assets in the U.K. will be frozen, and U.K. nationals will be barred from dealing with funds owned or controlled by MEC, the release said. “The UK’s latest actions target one of the military’s key funding streams and impose a further cost on them for their violations of human rights,” Raab said.
The European Union extended its sanctions against Bosnia and Herzegovina for one year until March 31, 2022, according to a March 26 European Council decision. Although no one is listed under the sanctions regime, the EC said it is reserving its right to add names to the list should an individual or entity threaten Bosnia and Herzegovina's sovereignty or security. The council also extended until March 31, 2023, the mandate of Operation Irini -- an effort in the Mediterranean to implement the United Nations arms embargo on Libya. The extension of the operation, which also works to monitor and gather information on illegal Libyan exports of oil, was announced in a March 26 news release.
Build-a-Bear Workshop lost an appeal of a lower court challenge to the classification of accessories for its stuffed bears imports, as the United Kingdom's Upper Tribunal Tax and Chancery sided with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs agency in a March 29 opinion. Hoping to get the tax court to find that its bear accessories should be given an alternate classification eliminating its import duties, Build-a-Bear took its case to the upper tax court. Despite having found the lower court erred in its findings, the Upper Tribunal Tax and Chancery still applied the 4.7% duty rate on the accessories. Ultimately, the toy retailer lost the appeal on the classification of its component for building a bear: clothing and wigs, footwear, plastic and textile hearts and animal accessories.
The United Kingdom's Department of International Trade published guidance on how academics should comply with export control measures for their research. The agency is especially concerned with how research could be co-opted for military purposes or for the development or delivery of weapons of mass destruction, and targeted its guidance to researchers who work with overseas colleagues on research, take their work overseas or export their technology. The guidance covers the areas in which research is at risk of requiring an export license, including aeronautical and space technology, nuclear technologies, applied physics, biotechnology, and telecommunications and information technology.
Italy on April 1 launches an online registration portal for value-added taxes, KPMG said in a blog post. Traders will be able to use the portal to register and report VAT for “remote” sales of goods between European Union member states and for certain goods imported from third countries that don’t exceed about $175 in value.
Germany announced a collective export license for armaments from industrial cooperation recognized by France and Germany beginning April 1 under the Treaty of Aachen, Germany's foreign trade agency said in a March 31 notice. The export license marks the deepening integration of the German and French defense industries under the 2019 agreement as arms can now be exported between the countries with greater ease under specific provisions of the agreement.
Belgium extended its reduced value-added taxes on certain COVID-19 related goods and will reduce interest rates on late VATs and duty payments, KPMG said in a March 30 alert. The measures, announced by Belgium March 29, will maintain a reduced 6% VAT rate on the “intra-Community acquisition and import” of “mouth masks” and hydroalcoholic gels until June 30, KPMG said. The country will also temporarily reduce the interest rates for “negligent late payment” of VAT from 9.6% to 4% per year, which will apply to amounts payable April 1 through June 30. Other measures will reduce the threshold for VAT refunds and abolish a mandatory “advance deposit” for certain VAT return filings.
The European Commission imposed antidumping duties on aluminum extrusions from China with duty margins ranging from 21.2% to 32.1%, the commission announced in a March 30 news release. The antidumping investigation began Feb. 14, 2020, following a complaint filed by the association European Aluminium, which represented more than 25% of the European Union's total aluminum extrusion production capacity.
The United Kingdom and Thailand signed a memorandum of understanding that established a trade dialogue and committed to further market access negotiations, the U.K.'s Department for International Trade announced in a March 29 news release. The MOU created a Joint Economic and Trade Committee to address market access barriers in agriculture, food and drink, financial services, healthcare and tech as key U.K. issues and power-generating equipment and automobiles as the top Thai concerns. Both sides will work to alleviate mutual concerns over food and drink, fisheries and agricultural sector market access and financial markets access, the release said. “By 2030, 66% of the global middle class will be in Asia and today’s agreement sets out our commitment to deepen ties with some of the fastest-growing markets globally,” International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said.