The U.K. on Feb. 1 added four entities to its Myanmar sanctions regime: the 101st and 77th Light Infantry divisions, Mining Enterprise 1 and Mining Enterprise 2. The infantry divisions were added for violating "the right of life of persons in Myanmar" and for carrying out arrests and torture "on the basis" of "political opinion, religious belief or ethnicity," the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation notice said. The mining enterprises were listed because of their ties with the Myanmar Security Forces.

The European Council on Feb. 2 renewed its sanctions on Zimbabwe for another year. The restrictions, which will now expire Feb. 20, 2025, include an embargo on arms and "equipment which might be used for internal repression" and an asset freeze on Zimbabwe Defense Industries. "Since February 2022 there are no listed individuals," the EU said, adding that it will "closely follow developments in Zimbabwe, with a particular attention to the human rights situation."

The European Council last week added five people to its Guatemala-related sanctions regime, including Guatemalan attorney general Maria Consuelo Porras Argueta De Porres, three other people working for the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor's Office and Judge Fredy Raul Orellana Letona. The EU said they are "undermining democracy, the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power in Guatemala."

The European Commission is proposing to extend the suspension of import duties and quotas on Ukrainian goods for another year (see 2305250017). The measures were originally enacted in June 2022 to aid Ukraine following Russia's invasion.

The European Council and Parliament on Jan. 30 reached a provisional agreement that could require new labeling requirements on honey and other food products. The deal, aimed at giving EU consumers more information on honey, fruit jams and fruit juices, would require honey producers to list the countries of origin on the product's label in descending order "based on weight" and include the "percentage that each country represents in the blend." For packages under 30 grams, the names of the countries of origin will be swapped with a two-letter International Organization for Standardization code. The provisional agreement needs to be approved by member states and undergo a legal review before it can be formally adopted, the council said.

The European Commission this week released a proposal that it said will allow Northern Ireland businesses to use U.K. tariff rate quotas for imports from third countries of various agri-food products. The commission said the “aim” of the proposal is to ensure Northern Ireland businesses can use the TRQs for commodities originating from the rest of the world, “such as New Zealand lamb.” The solution was negotiated by the EU and the U.K. as part of the Windsor Framework, the agreement signed between the two sides on post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland (see 2302270051).

The EU and Japan this week met for the first time as part of a new supply chain working group to discuss economic security issues. The EU said the forum will allow the two sides to ensure a "level playing field by regulating state intervention in support to industrial sectors," swap “trade strategies” and talk about efforts to diversify supply chains. The European Commission said the new working group is “especially relevant” to the bloc’s recently published economic security strategy see (see 2306200052 and 2401240078), adding that it wants to partner with allies such as Japan on “anti-coercion instruments, export controls and investment screening.”

The U.S. and the EU held the fifth meeting of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council in Washington on Jan. 30, where the two sides again committed to increasing trade and cooperating on economic security and emerging technology issues, according to a European Commission readout of the meeting. The commission said the EU and the U.S. agreed to “explore ways to facilitate trade in goods and technologies that are vital for the green transition” and strengthen approaches to investment screening, export controls, outbound investment and “dual-use innovation.”

The U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation this week amended the sanctions entry for Muhammad Fadl Abd al-Nabi, navy commander for the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The change updates identifying information for al-Nabi, who was sanctioned earlier this month (see 2401250011).

The European Council on Jan. 29 added four people and one entity to its global human rights sanctions regime and renewed its Russia-related sanctions regime for another six months.