The U.K. Department for Transport recently amended its transport sanctions to add guidance on Belarus ship sanctions and expand the guidance on Belarus aircraft sanctions. The agency also updated the guidance on Russia ship and aircraft sanctions.
The U.K. added 22 new entries to its Russia sanctions list, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced Nov. 30. All 22 are government and military officials, including officials responsible for promoting and enforcing the conscription of citizens to fight the war in Ukraine, OFSI said. The listings include Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Valentinovich Manturov; 10 governors and regional heads, including the governors of Dagestan and Kalmykia; five military commissars of Moscow, the Kaliningrad and Rostov regions; Arkady Alexandrovich Gostev, director of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service; Ivan Prokopenko, head of the Tula Federal Penitentiary Service; Dmitry Bezrukikh, head of the Federal Punishment Service of the Rostov Region; and Ella Pamfilova, chairperson of the Central Election Commission.
The U.K. published a notice Nov. 29 advising industry about revised export license "undertakings" and a reminder about the expiration of "previous undertaking templates." The notice said that when using an open individual export license, exporters need to "obtain a completed OIEL consignee undertaking from each consignee." When using open general export licenses related to military goods, software and technology, exporters "need to obtain a completed OGEL consignee undertaking for each consignee, as per the terms and conditions of the license," the U.K. added. Applications for either a standard individual export license or a standard individual trade control license must "attach either an end user undertaking or stockist undertaking (EUU or SU) as one of the supporting documents," the notice said.
The European Council Nov. 28 added sanctions violations to its list of "EU crimes." The move comes amid the EU's bevy of sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. The council said "it is essential that these measures are fully implemented," with listing sanctions violations as an EU crime the first of two steps to ensure harmonized sanctions enforcement across the bloc, the council said.
The EU last week released the draft agenda for its annual export control forum. The forum, scheduled for Dec. 6, will feature speakers from the Bureau of Industry and Security and panels on emerging technologies, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, multilateral restrictions and more.
The U.K.'s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on Nov. 21 released guidance on the U.K.'s ban on Russian oil and oil products meant for entry into Britain. The guidance explains how to find the origin of oil imports to the U.K. Other sections of the guidance break down the context for the U.K. sanctions on Russian oil, details of the ban and how the ban on Russian oil and oil products will be enforced.
The top trade official in the EU, Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, said that it's important that the upcoming U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council meeting deliver "concrete and tangible results." He said Nov. 21 in Brussels: "I am hopeful that we will deliver some attractive results to facilitate trade. I am thinking notably of conformity assessment in specific sectors, and how to make better use of digital tools to ease trans-Atlantic trade.
The European Council on Nov. 19 called on all U.N. members to fully implement sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council in response to North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed in Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone last week. The council said North Korea is trying to "develop ever more menacing means to deliver weapons of mass destruction," threatening "all countries." In response, the council urged North Korea to comply with its obligations under U.N. Security Council resolutions and ditch all its nuclear weapons. "The EU recalls the duty for all UN Members to take action to fully implement sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council," the council said.
Ton miles, a key industry measure representing the volume of cargo transported by oil tankers multiplied by the distance it travels by sea, are expected to jump by 4.3% this year, resulting in a surge in revenue for supertankers due to sanctions stemming from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported. According to data from Clarkson Research Services, daily earnings for the industry's largest supertankers rose to $99,628 on Nov. 18, a mark which is four times the average of the past four years. All of this shows the disruption in the crude oil trading market, Bloomberg said. The disruption stems from Europe's move to ban purchases of Russian oil, which takes effect in December. As a result, cargoes flow instead from Asia, resulting in ships travelling thousands of more miles and driving a key aspect of demand, Bloomberg said.
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ruled out the possibility of a Switzerland-style Brexit deal with the EU, declaring that he would block any move that would require an alignment with the EU's laws, The Guardian reported. After the Sunday Times reported the U.K. was considering a Swiss-type arrangement, Sunak told reporters that the U.K. "will not pursue any relationship with Europe that relies on alignment with EU laws."