The European Union notified the United Kingdom about its breaching of provisions of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland in the withdrawal agreement signed following Britain's departure from the EU. The March 15 letter of formal notice said the U.K. has violated the terms of the Ireland and Northern Ireland provisions regarding the movement of goods and pet travel, the European Commission said in a March 16 news release. The EU gave the U.K. a month to respond to the notice. The EU is challenging the U.K.'s extension of the Brexit grace period on food imports to Northern Ireland. EC Vice President Maros Sefcovic sent a separate letter to David Frost, U.K. co-chair of the Joint Committee, calling on the U.K. to end the Brexit grace period and imploring “good faith” consultations with the Joint Committee.
Ireland's Prime Minister Micheál Martin told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce audience that as the U.S. is looking for trusted partners to make sure its supply chains are resilient, it should look to Ireland. He noted that his country was the fifth-largest supplier of coronavirus-related goods.
With large purchase agreements yet to be filled, the European Union extended its vaccine export control regime until the end of June, the European Commission announced March 11. The controls apply only to companies with which the EU has negotiated an advance purchase agreement and require these companies to notify their member state authorities of their intention to export COVID-19 vaccines. To date, only one export of vaccines has been denied, with the EU blocking a shipment of more than 250,000 vaccine doses from British vaccine developer AstraZeneca to Australia (see 2103080006). The EC said it has granted 249 export requests to 31 different countries for a total of over 34 million doses since they did not threaten underlying APAs with the EU.
Trade between the United Kingdom and the European Union dropped substantially in the first month following the U.K.'s exit from the EU. According to trade data from the U.K.'s Office for National Statistics, U.K. exports to the EU fell by more than 40% in the first month of 2021 and imports from the EU to the U.K. fell by nearly 29%. The largest drop in imports to the U.K. was in machinery and transport equipment, particularly in the import of cars and medicinal and pharmaceutical products. January's fall in trade is the largest single-month drop in goods imports and exports since tracking began in January 1997, according to the trade data.
The European Council extended sanctions on those “responsible for undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine” for another six months, until Sept. 15, the EC announced March 12. The sanctions include travel restrictions, an asset freeze and a ban on making funds available to listed persons and entities; they apply to 177 individuals and 48 entities.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation published guidance on levying monetary penalties for financial sanctions breaches. The guidance explains HM Treasury's powers in the Policing and Crime Act 2017 that gave the agency the power to levy fines for sanctions violations, summarizes OFSI's compliance approach, provides an overview of the agency's assessment practices, details the process for deciding the level of penalty and explains how businesses or individuals can comply with the fines, including how to pay and appeal them. Penalties and guidelines come into effect April 1.
European Council President Charles Michel criticized the United Kingdom in a March 9 newsletter for blocking COVID-19 vaccine exports to the EU while justifying the controls the EU set up in January (see 2102010012). “The United Kingdom and the United States have imposed an outright ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components produced on their territory,” Michel said. “But the European Union, the region with the largest vaccine production capacity in the world, has simply put in place a system for controlling the export of doses produced in the EU.” A U.K. government spokesperson said Great Britain has not blocked the export of a single vaccine. In a statement, the spokesperson said, “Any references to a UK export ban or any restrictions on vaccines are completely false. This pandemic is a global challenge and international collaboration on vaccine development continues to be an integral part of our response,” Reuters reported.
The United Kingdom and Cameroon signed an Economic Partnership Agreement, making Cameroon yet another nation to ink a post-Brexit deal with Great Britain. The EPA will grant greater market access for U.K. and Cameroon businesses to build on a trade relationship worth around £200 million in 2019, a March 9 news release said. Under the accord, trade between the two nations can continue, “supporting Cameroonian businesses to increase operations, enabling UK exporters to sell more goods and boosting prosperity for both countries as we together recover from the Covid-19 pandemic,” U.K. Minister for Africa James Duddridge said.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation updated its sanctions list for Somalia and Sudan, adding three individuals to the Somali sanctions and removing one individual from the Sudanese restrictions. In a March 2 notice, OFSI subjected Somali nationals Abukar Ali Adan, Maalim Ayman and Mahad Karate each to an asset freeze for “engaging in or providing support for acts that threaten the peace, security or stability of Somalia.” In a March 8 notice, the U.K. also removed Adam Shareif (see 2103080009) from its Sudan sanctions list.
Suriname became the 14th Caribbean nation to join the CariForum-U.K. Economic Partnership Agreement, the United Kingdom's Department for International Trade announced in a March 5 news release. Once the deal comes fully into effect, it will provide duty-free and quota-free access for goods between Suriname and the U.K., including machinery, whiskey and cars from the U.K. to Suriname, and bananas and rum from Suriname to the U.K. The agreement also includes trade liberalizing measures in services, including provisions on intellectual property, procurement and competition. The other 13 states party to the EPA are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.