The U.K. on June 26 renewed a general license authorizing certain humanitarian activity involving Syria and Turkey. The license, which allows the U.N., its programs and other entities specialized in humanitarian relief to provide relief to people in Syria and Turkey in response to the February 2023 earthquake, was extended through Feb. 14, 2025. The license was first issued in 2023 (see 2302160013) and was scheduled to expire Aug. 14 after being renewed in February (see 2402070010).
The EU extended its steel safeguard measure until June 30, 2026, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Trade announced. The measure imposes tariff rate quotas "above which a 25% duty is levied on imports." The TRQs were imposed in response to the U.S. Section 232 measures.
The EU launched an online tool with "easy-to-access information on the rules governing public procurement for contracting entities in the EU Member States." The tool, called Procurement for Buyers, will help entities "understand and apply international procurement rules in a clear and consistent manner," and will help them find out which bidders are eligible to participate in the public procurement procedures in EU member states, "based on the provisions of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) and bilateral EU trade agreements."
The Council of the European Union on June 24 sanctioned six people for cyberattacks on information systems involving "critical infrastructure, critical state functions, the storage or processing of classified information and government emergency response teams in EU member states." The individuals include members of Callisto, a group of Russian military intelligence offers carrying out cyber operations on EU member states and third countries. Others include members of the Armageddon hacker group, which is backed by Russia's Federal Security Service, and two developers of the Conti, Trickbot and Wizard Spider malwares.
The U.K. issued a general license under its Russia sanctions regime allowing sanctioned parties to make all required payments to the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority. The license doesn't apply to any fees for an application for permission to conduct activities that fall "within any function of the FCA," or payments to the FCA "of a levy imposed by the scheme manager of the Financial Compensation Scheme." Sanctioned parties also can't make payments to the FCA that are collected by the FAC on behalf of the Financial Reporting Council. The license also requires sanctioned parties to "keep accurate, complete, and readable records" of any activity permitted under the license for six years. The license took effect June 20.
The EU General Court on June 19 rejected Russian businessperson Igor Rotenberg's bid to be removed from the EU's Russian sanctions list. Rotenberg was sanctioned for holding leadership positions in Russian companies SGM, Gazprom Drilling and Mostotrest and for his association with his father, oligarch Arkady Rotenberg, and with President Vladimir Putin.
The EU and Ukraine on June 20 extended their current road transport agreement, which seeks to help Ukraine "access world markets by facilitating transit through EU countries."
Cote d'Ivoire liberalized 1,080 tariff lines on EU goods under the EU-Cote d'Ivoire interim economic partnership agreement, retroactively effective from Jan. 1, the European Commission announced this week. The new tariff cuts cover "mechanical and electrical machinery, as well as appliances, plastics, and chemical products," the commission said. The number of liberalized tariff lines under the deal is now 3,385, or about 55% of total tariff lines. The final two tariff liberalization moves are set for 2026 and 2029, which will lead to reductions to around 88% of tariff lines.
The Supreme Court of the Netherlands last week sustained the conviction of a person (name redacted) for violating the nation's sanctions laws, according to an unofficial translation. The court found that the accused's transfer of money to the person's brother, who's a fighter for ISIS in Syria, amounted to the transfer of funds to a terrorist organization, in violation of Dutch sanctions laws.
A group of European countries not in the EU aligned with two recent sanctions decisions from the bloc pertaining to Russia and its war in Ukraine.