Switzerland's Federal Council approved an agreement with the United Kingdom granting mutual recognition of the authorized economic operator status, the council announced in an April 14 news release. The agreement also authorizes AEO status for individual companies, allowing for reduced technical and security-related customs barriers for goods. Following the U.K.'s departure from the European Union, the U.S.has an advance summary declaration obligation for all goods coming into Switzerland, the release said. The U.K. has yet to ratify the agreement.
The Federation of Small Businesses, a small-business industry group in the United Kingdom, is seeking British government export assistance, it said in an April 13 news release. The FSB cited recent figures from the Office for National Statistics showing that U.K. total exports dropped 10.3% in February compared with the same month last year. “The Government should now turn to its build back better agenda: cutting the non-wage costs of employment to spur hiring, ending a debilitating late payment crisis that has worsened through [COVID-19] lockdowns, and taking innovative approaches to emergency debt to realise meaningful economic value,” FSB National Chairman Mike Cherry said.
The E3 -- France, Germany and the United Kingdom -- released a joint statement April 14 rejecting Iran's escalatory measures of increasing uranium enrichment up to 60% using advanced centrifuges. Iran the previous day told the International Atomic Energy Agency it is ramping up its uranium enrichment capacity, prompting international concern. The statement called the move “particularly regrettable,” coming as the U.S. has rejoined substantive discussions about bringing Iran back into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. “Iran’s dangerous recent communication is contrary to the constructive spirit and good faith of these discussions,” it said. “In light of recent developments, we reject all escalatory measures by any actor and call upon Iran not to further complicate the diplomatic process.”
European professors speaking about the future of the trans-Atlantic trade relationship said that while it's logical for democratic, rule-of-law countries to coordinate trade policy against an authoritarian rival, that's easier said than done.
A United Kingdom strategic export controls annual report lists all export licensing decisions made by the British government from 2020. For all of last year, the U.K. received 12,252 standard individual export license applications, granting 11,974 of them. The government also issued 353 open individual export licenses out of the 393 applications it received.
The European Union will remove tariffs on two-thirds of product lines for goods from Uzbekistan as part of the Central Asian nation receiving Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus benefits. Uzbekistan received the extra benefits in exchange for implementing the 27 core international conventions under the EU's sustainable development and good governance (GSP+) incentive program, the EU said in an April 9 news release. Among these conventions, the EU singled out Uzbekistan's progress on business climate, the judicial system, security services, labor conditions and administrative accountability. Child labor, for instance, was a practice the nation has sought to systematically eliminate. GSP+ status applies effective April 10.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation published an update to its sanctions on ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qaida, amending the entry for Abu Bakar Ba'asyir. In an April 7 trade notice, OFSI noted that Ba'asyir was released from prison in Indonesia on Jan. 8, 2021, after serving his sentence.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced changes to its sanctions on Yemen and the Central African Republic: an amendment to the entry for Sultan Saleh Aida Aida Zabin, the director of Yemen's Criminal Investigation Department, in an April 6 notice; and removal of the Bureau D'Achat de Diamant en Centrafrique/Kardiam of the Central African Republic from the sanctions list, meaning it is no longer subject to an asset freeze, in a separate April 6 notice.
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 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.