European officials are concerned that a sudden increase in exports of washing machines, refrigerators and other items to Russian neighbors are being used to help the country acquire semiconductors and evade export controls, Bloomger reported Oct. 29. Armenia imported more washing machines from the EU during the first eight months of this year than the last two years combined, the report said, and Kazakhstan imported more than triple the amount of refrigerators through August compared with the same period last year. European officials are concerned some of the items' components may be used by Russia's military, the report said, and have publicly said they have seen parts from fridges in Russian military equipment used in Ukraine.
The top trade official from the EU, European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, said the incentives for the green transition in the Inflation Reduction Act appear to discriminate against automotive, battery, renewables and energy-intensive businesses operating in the EU. "It will not be easy to fix it -- but fix it we must," he said during an Oct. 31 speech at the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Prague. He also said, "This is an issue of concern for many countries and businesses, which I have raised with our US partners over these past weeks, and it featured prominently in today's discussions."
The U.K. Solicitors Regulation Authority in October released its "Anti Money Laundering annual report 2021-22," finding that 26% of the SRA-reviewed anti-money laundering policies implemented by 224 firms failed to mention steps a fee earner should take to ensure that a client is not subject to financial sanctions. The report said the consequences of noncompliance are high, given the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation's aggressive enforcement. It said compliance can be ensured via correctly identifying sanctioned individuals and entities, avoiding providing listed individuals and entities with prohibited services and ensuring all reporting obligations are fulfilled. SRA said it will boost its sanctions compliance work in the upcoming year.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation imposed two general licenses under its Russia sanctions regime. The Securing Energy for Europe license lets an individual or entity grant a category five loan or enter into an arrangement to grant this loan to Gazprom Germania or any of its subsidiaries. These loans can be issued for over-the-counter gas trading, payments of credit arrangements and invoices by Gazprom or any of its subsidiaries, customer credit arrangements, the provision of clearing services to Gazprom or any of its subsidiaries, payment between Gazprom or any of its subsidiaries, or the provision of financing for letters of credit. The license will run 11:59 p.m. Oct. 28 to 11:59 p.m. Oct. 29, 2023. The Loans and Securities amendment, which runs 11:59 p.m. Oct. 28 to 11:59 p.m. Nov. 5, permits an individual or entity to directly or indirectly enter into an arrangement to grant a category five loan, though it does not permit activity that would otherwise be permitted under the Securing Energy for Europe license.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation updated its frozen assets reporting template, OFSI said. The U.K. Treasury requires all individuals who "hold or control funds or economic resources belonging to a designated person, to complete the reporting form and submit it to" OFSI by Nov. 11. The reporting exercise is conducted annually to update OFSI's records.
The EU General Court in an Oct. 26 judgment annulled the sanctions listing of Dmitry Ovsyannikov under the Russia sanctions regime. The European Council said that given his former positions in the Russian government since 2017, Ovsyannikov undermined Ukraine's sovereignty. The General Court said the council could not justify this finding because Ovsyannikov resigned as Sevastopol governor in 2019 and stopped working as a deputy minister in 2020. The EU had to show that his links with the government since these dates justified his designation -- something the bloc failed to do, the court held. However, Ovsyannikov is still sanctioned following a European Council decision in September that was taken up after the hearing in this case.
China banned the import of poultry and related products directly or indirectly from Portugal due to a recent outbreak of avian influenza, the General Administration of Customs announced Oct. 27, according to an unofficial translation. Portugal reported to the World Organization for Animal Health that it witnessed an epidemic of H5N1 across its poultry farms. As a result, China ordered that all poultry and related goods from Portugal shipped from Oct. 27 be returned or destroyed and that poultry shipped before the announcement be strictly quarantined.
A group of European countries not in the EU aligned themselves with recent EU sanctions moves under the restrictions regimes pertaining to Ukraine and those threatening the sovereignty of Ukraine, the European Council announced Oct. 26. On Oct. 20, the council added three Iranian individuals and one entity to the Ukraine sanctions regime for supplying the Russian army with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The countries of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway also implemented the decision, the council said.
The EU released updated guidance on the provision of business services under its Russia sanctions regime, adding an overview table of the EU restrictions on services. The European Commission added five questions to its FAQs about business services, covering how the sectoral scope for IT consultancy services is defined, whether the measures on IT consultancy services hamper the conditions of civil society organization in Russia, which software updates are exempted from the ban on IT consultancy services, what activities are covered on the architectural and engineering services ban and what activities are covered by the ban on legal advisory services.
Updates to the U.K.'s list of defense-related goods to reflect changes to the Wassenaar Arrangement munitions list will enter into force Nov. 3. The order also implements changes to the European Common Military List "in accordance with the UK's commitments under the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland in the European Union withdrawal agreement," the Department for International Trade said.