The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on Dec. 18 amended entries under its Russia and Iran sanctions regimes.

The proposed European Union forced labor trade ban waits to stop goods until after a government investigation finds the goods contain forced labor, in contrast to the U.S. approach, which automatically bans all imports that are suspected to be made with forced labor, without a separate investigation, trade lawyer John Foote said.

The U.K. on Dec. 15 sanctioned Russia-based Joint Stock Commercial Bank Novikombank. The country's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said the bank conducts business in a sector of "strategic significance" to the Russian government. OFSI also amended the listings for 27 other Russia-related entries.

The U.K. last week renewed the antidumping duties on certain aluminum road wheels from China for another five years. The 22.3% dumping rate for all overseas exporters will now run until Jan. 25, 2027. Cast aluminum road wheels may enter without the AD applied.

The European Parliament is pushing the EU to impose new sanctions against government officials for human rights abuses in Belarus and Tibet.

The European Council and the European Parliament on Dec. 14 negotiated new rules that will make up its upcoming corporate sustainability due diligence directive, which will require companies to conduct specific due diligence on their supply chains to address various environmental and social concerns, including forced labor risks (see 2202230073). The “provisional” agreement still needs to be formally adopted by both the council and the parliament before it takes effect.

The European Council and the European Parliament have announced a provisional agreement on a new authority to given anti-money laundering rules and supervise the EU's enforcement of its anti-money laundering and terrorism financing laws. The authority will have "direct and indirect supervisory powers over high-risk obliged entities in the financial sector," and will look to increase the efficiency of the anti-money laundering framework, the council said Dec. 13.

The EU's Directorate-General for Trade expanded the scope of the support it provides for EU service exporters via its online Trade Assistant for Services and Investment, the DG for Trade announced. The support tool will now cover 100 service sectors across Canada, Japan, Switzerland and the U.K. Further expansions are planned for four additional trading partners by the end of 2024 and a total of 16 nations by 2026.

The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on Dec. 11 revised three entries under its Russia and Belarus sanctions regimes. OFSI updated identifying information for OOO Mvizion under its Russia sanctions and the listings for Mikhail Ivanovich Dola and Mikhail Kavaliou under its Belarus regime.

The EU inched closer this week to adopting a law that could require member states to treat sanctions violations as criminal offenses, which could result in harsher penalties and possible prison time (see 2306090006).