Turkey recently imposed an export ban on milk powder, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service said, the latest in a series of measures this year to restrict agricultural products leaving the market in order to stabilize domestic prices amid inflation. The export ban applies to milk powders both with fat and skimmed milk, the agency said, and runs from mid-September through the end of the year. The country previously banned and then lifted export restrictions on butter and olive oil (see 2207210009).
The U.K. amended one entry under its Libya sanctions regime, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said in a Sept. 26 notice. The entry for Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, Russian funder and former director of the Internet Research Agency and supporter of the Wagner Group, was updated with a change in the spelling of Prigozhin's first name in Russian.
Dockworkers at the U.K.’s Port of Liverpool on Sept. 19 began a strike expected to continue through Oct. 3 (see 2209130016), their union said this week. Workers began striking after the port failed “to honour the 2021 pay agreement” and conduct a “promised pay review,” the union said. Port workers “are being asked to accept attacks on their living standards while the company gets richer and richer -- Unite will not tolerate that,” said Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite the Union.
The European Commission updated its Russia sanctions FAQs, releasing a page on the "Import, Purchase & Transfer of Listed Goods." The updated guidance says certain listed goods, including fertilizers, animal feed and various hydrocarbons, can be shipped to third countries. The move is intended to lessen strains on food and energy security given the sanctions on Russia.
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation added three questions to its Russia sanctions guidance page. The first asks whether insurers are allowed to insure Russian ships carrying food and fertilizer from Russia and Ukraine to a third country. OFSI said insurers can apply for a license under the food security purpose with OFSI, which allows anything to be done in connection with the distribution of food for the benefit of a country's civilian population. Applying for this license doesn't prevent applicants from also applying under a different purpose in the regulations.
A few EU member states expressed their concern that new proposed guidance from the European Commission could weaken sanctions on Russia and allow countries to ship certain key Russian commodities including coal, globally. Several countries, including Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, criticized the guidance, Bloomberg reported Sept. 21. In a meeting with EU ministers, the concerned parties asked the commission to halt the document's publication until their issues were addressed.
The EU's trade defense measures in 2021 purportedly protected 462,000 EU jobs, the European Commission said in its annual report on the bloc's trade protection measures. Such action protected jobs in industries including aluminum, steel, ceramics and green technology, the EC said. The report said the commission ramped up its monitoring efforts to find entities that evade duties, particularly through circumvention. The commission also bolstered the assistance it gives to European exporters in addressing unfair trade protection measures imposed by third countries, the commission said.
The U.K., in a Sept. 16 notice, made a host of changes to its Russia sanctions regime listings. The Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation replaced Arkady Romanovich Rotenberg's entry with one that lists him as the previous chairman of the House of Prosvescheniye and previous owner of Stroygazmontazh. OFSI removed the entity Zao Interavtomatika (IA) from the consolidated list, and deleted two duplicates from the sanctions regime. The duplicate listings were for Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky and Vladimir Abdualievich Vasiliev. OFSI also amended 118 entries, still subjecting them to an asset freeze.
The U.K. amended one entry under its Libya sanctions regime, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said in a Sept. 16 notice. The entry for Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, funder and former director of the Internet Research Agency and supporter of the Wagner Group, was changed to clarify the reasons for his listing.
Eight European countries not in the EU aligned themselves with the EU's recent decision to sanction three individuals responsible for threatening the sovereignty of Ukraine, the European Council said. The countries of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway also imposed the decision.