United Kingdom-based nongovernmental organization Redress has published a template for anyone seeking to submit Magnitsky sanctions evidence to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. NGOs, lawyers, human rights defenders, activists, journalists and academics may use the template to suggest designations under the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020, the group said.
The United Kingdom and Italy are set to initiate a dialogue to create a new export and investment partnership to boost trade between the two countries, the U.K.'s Department for International Trade said Oct. 13. U.K. International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Italy's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Luigi Di Maio, meeting in Sorrento, Italy, made the announcement immediately following the G-20 meeting there. The dialogue will seek to increase exports in high-performing sectors such as life sciences, defense, security, digital and tech, DIT said. Inward investment, including in low-carbon industries such as onshore and offshore wind, hydrogen and carbon capture storage, will also be the target of increased attention. DIT hopes the dialogue will lead to annual ministerial talks and more forums for increased engagement between the countries' trade leaders.
The European Union left in place antidumping duties on wire rod imports from China after an expiry review, the European Commission said. The AD duties apply to "bars and rods, hot-rolled, in irregularly wound coils, of iron, non-alloy steel or alloy steel other than of stainless steel" from China, covering various combined nomenclature codes. The Valin Group received an individual dumping rate of 7.9%, while the country-wide rate for all other companies was set at 24%.
Maersk is diverting large vessels away from the United Kingdom due to container congestion at the country’s main port, the Financial Times reported Oct. 12. The shipping company is telling its big ships to avoid Felixstowe, which handles more than one-third of the country’s freight containers, the report said, and is instead sending smaller vessels to transport cargo from Europe to the U.K. Because of the U.K.’s truck driver shortage, Maersk said, it is taking longer to move fully loaded containers away from ports. The company called the Felixstowe port “among the top two or three worst-hit terminals” in the world, the report said.
The United Kingdom updated its export control licensing data for April 1 - June 30, 2021, the Department for International Trade said. In a table on the overall licensing statistics, the U.K. saw 3,593 Standard Individual Export Licenses applications, with 3,526 issued. The U.K. also saw 93 Open Individual Export License applications, with 86 issued. The U.K. saw 98 Open General Export License registrations in this period for exports of dual-use items to EU member states.
The European Union implemented a definitive antidumping duty on aluminum flat-rolled products from China, the European Commission said. After receiving a petition from industry producers, the commission imposed the AD duty on "aluminum products, flat rolled, whether or not alloyed, whether or not further worked than flat rolled, not backed, without internal layers of other material." The scope of the duties was also modified to include aluminum products "in coils or in coiled strips, in cut-to-length sheets, or in the form of circles; of a thickness of 0,2 mm or more but not more than 6 mm; in plates, of a thickness of more than 6 mm; in coils or in coiled strips, of a thickness of not less than 0.03 mm but less than 0.22 mm."
The European Union extended by a year its sanctions regimes relating to human rights violations in Nicaragua and the proliferation of chemical weapons, the European Council said Oct. 11. The Nicaragua sanctions apply to 14 individuals and were imposed in 2019 due to the “deterioriating political and social situation” in the Central American nation. The chemical weapons sanctions apply to 15 individuals and two entities and are meant to back the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction.
The European Union sanctioned an additional eight individuals for “actively supporting actions and implementing policies that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine,” the European Council said Oct. 11. These eight individuals include judges and prosecutors responsible for enforcing Russian law in Crimea and Sevastopol, the council said. The total number of sanctioned parties is 185 individuals and 48 entities.
The United Kingdom updated its guidance for nongovernmental organizations and others relating to counterterrorist sanctions and export controls, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said Oct. 11. The guidance walks NGOs through export control and sanctions-related FAQs, including what forms of transactions are banned under financial sanctions, how the sanctions apply to NGOs and where to check if an NGO it might be dealing with a designated entity.
The United Kingdom kicked off a 14-week consultation period ahead of negotiations over a trade deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Department for International Trade said. The consultation calls for the public and businesses to share their views about the nearly $41 billion trade relationship before negotiations start in earnest in 2022. The U.K.'s secretary of state will hold a bilateral meeting in London with the GCC Secretary General Nayef Falah Al-Hajraf and Bahraini Assistant Undersecretary for Domestic and Foreign Trade Hamad Bin Salman Al-Khalifa to signal the start of the consultation, DIT said. The consultation will wrap up in January.