The U.K.'s Licensing for International Trade (LITE) system will be unavailable starting the morning of Oct. 27 for "essential maintenance," the country's Department for Business & Trade said in an email to users this week. "Exporters will not be able to access the system during this time," the agency said. "We hope to resume the service as soon as possible."
The EU officially published in its Oct. 20 Official Journal the revised carbon border adjustment mechanism, which is expected to exempt 90% of European importers from the new rules (see 2509290011). The European Commission said this "marks the final step in the formal adoption process," allowing the bloc to soon require taxes on certain imports covered by the carbon duty. Traders must pay taxes beginning in 2026 (see 2310020037) and 2410170036).
The Council of the European Union on Oct. 20 largely agreed to a European Commission proposal (see 2506180058) that would ban certain Russian gas imports starting on Jan. 1 "while maintaining a transition period for existing contracts." The council next must negotiate with the European Parliament on the final text for the proposal.
EU and Chinese officials are planning to meet in Brussels in the “coming days” to discuss China’s new export controls over rare earths 2510090021), said Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s trade and economic security commissioner, in an Oct. 21 social media post. Sefcovic said Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao will travel to Europe, and the EU hopes to “find urgent solutions on export controls.”
Belgium and Sweden this month joined the EU's Centralized Clearance for Import (CCI) system, which the bloc is hoping to establish as its "one-stop shop" for customs clearance into the EU. The system -- which has already been available for use by European businesses in Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Croatia and Italy -- allows customs authorities of different member states to act as "one customs authority for the clearance of goods," enabling traders to submit customs declarations to their member state "for goods physically presented to a customs office in any other Member State" operating as part of CCI.
The European Commission imposed antidumping duties Oct. 20 on steel track shoes from China, the Directorate-General for Trade and Economic Security announced. The AD rate is 62.5% and is imposed following the imposition of provisional duties, which have been collected since April 22. Steel track shoes are used as parts for tracked equipment that's used in the construction and mining sectors.
The EU on Oct. 16 issued updated FAQs about its dual-use export control regulations and its import ban on refined petroleum products that contain Russian crude oil. The export control FAQs cover due diligence and compliance obligations for EU exporters, as well as other guidance to help companies comply with the rules. The Russia oil FAQs outline the circumstances under which EU companies need to carry out "enhanced" due diligence to make sure an imported refined oil product doesn't contain Russia-origin oil.
The EU continued to largely approve most foreign direct investment deals submitted to its investment review cooperation mechanism, the European Commission said in its annual report on FDI, released this week.
Deutsche Bundesbank, the national central bank of Germany, recently published guidance to help customers and other operators comply with new snapback sanctions on Iran (see 2509290051). The bank stressed that all provisions of funds to sanctioned Iranian people or entities are blocked, and certain payments designed to send certain goods and technologies to Iran are "generally prohibited, such as certain goods, software and technologies that could contribute to Iran's military and technological strengthening," according to an unofficial translation. Other portions of the guidance outline potential exemptions, reporting requirements related to money transfers, and more.
The U.K. announced a host of new Russia-related sanctions this week, targeting major energy firms Rosneft and Lukoil, along with four oil terminals in China, 44 tankers in Russia’s shadow fleet and more. The U.K. also said it’s banning imports of oil products refined in third countries using Russian-origin crude oil.