The U.K. Solicitors Regulation Authority reported two "suspicions of breaches of the Russia Sanctions regime" to the U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation in the past year, the body said in its annual report for the year that ended April 5. The authority said the breaches involved "firms facilitating transactions" of more than $386,000. The report didn't provide more details.
The U.K. on July 24 renewed a general license authorizing certain transactions with North American subsidiaries of Russian steel company Evraz (see 2205090013). The license was scheduled to expire Sept. 30 but now is extended six month beyond that and expires March 31.
The EU and Serbia signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a "Strategic Partnership" on sustainable raw materials, battery value chains and electric vehicles, the European Commission announced July 19. EU and Serbia will develop a road map to implement the strategic partnership within six months, according to the MOU.
The EU and Japan, meeting July 16, acknowledged the entry into force of new provisions on the "free flow of data" and 48 new "Geographical Indications" under the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, the EU's Directorate-General for Trade announced. The two parties discussed "further market access improvement" and swapped views on "economic security issues." They came together for the fifth meeting of the Joint Committee established under the agreement.
Virtual currency wallet and exchange operator Payeer was fined nearly $9 million for violating international sanctions, Lithuania's Financial Crime Investigation Service announced. Payeer operated the cryptocurrency exchange "Payeer.com," which Russian customers were allowed to use to carry out transactions in Russian roubles. Funds were sent to and from sanctioned Russian banks, the Lithuanian authority said. Per EU law, the exchange was supposed to be conducting customer identification to ensure sanctioned parties were not using its services, close sanctioned parties' accounts and tell the investigation service of the suspension. The service was found to have violated EU sanctions for over 1.5 years.
The EU on July 15 released updated guidance for a requirement that forces exporters to insert clauses in their contracts that bar reexports of certain sensitive goods to Russia (see 2402270046). The guidance clarified that exporters are exempted from inserting this “no-Russia clause” as part of certain public contracts with a “public authority in a third country or with an international organisation.” But exporters still must inform their EU member state government “of any public contracts that they have concluded which is benefitting from” this exemption.
The EU General Court last week annulled three European Council decisions sanctioning Vladimir Rashevsky, former CEO and director of mineral fertilizer giant EuroChem. The court didn't consider the most recent listing decision imposing sanctions on Rashevsky.
The EU General Court in a pair of decisions July 10 annuled the sanctions listings for two former Democratic Republic of Congo officials -- Evariste Boshab, former deputy prime minister and minister of the interior and security, and Alex Mupompa, former governor of Kasai Central and member of parliament, according to an unofficial translation.
The EU on July 1 launched an antidumping investigation on imports of epoxy resins from China, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand after receiving a complaint from a group of epoxy resin producers. The European Commission said it will investigate certain products “containing more than 35% by weight of epoxy resins, with certain exclusions, and it expects to conclude the investigation within one year. The epoxy resin producers, comprised of Olin Corp., Westlake Corp. and Spolchemie, said exporters from the four countries are “selling their products on the EU market at unfairly low prices that significantly undercut the prices of European producers.”
The European Union is setting preliminary countervailing duties on Chinese electric vehicles beginning on July 5, as expected (see 2406120008), the European Commission said. The rates are slightly lower than rates announced in early June, prior to negotiations between Chinese and EU officials that will still continue despite the imposition of CV duties. Revised CVD rates are 17.4% for BYD, 19.9% for Geely, 37.6% for SAIC, 20.8% for Chinese companies that cooperated but weren't individually investigated, and 37.6% for non-cooperating companies. Tesla, at its request, may receive its own individual rate in the EU's final determination, the European Commission said.