Poland on Oct. 10 sanctioned Armen Harutyunyan, who it said manages companies that export nitrogen fertilizers from Belarus to Poland and other EU countries. Harutyunyan is or was the owner or controller of Polish company TST PL, United Arab Emirates-based World Chem Trading Co. and Belarus-based Technospetstrading, Poland said. He's also the indirect owner of Belarus-based Technospetstradingexport LLC.

The Council of the European Union on Oct. 13 agreed to eliminate customs duties on various agricultural products from Ukraine, including dairy products, fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and meat preparations, the council said.

The U.K.’s ongoing public consultation about how it can improve its civil enforcement of financial sanctions (see 2507220056) -- including whether it should increase its maximum penalty amounts -- could lead to “greater scrutiny” and more investigations, Akin said this week in a client alert.

The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation last week updated its open general license for certain trade among the AUKUS nations of Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. The update includes new text on the "Authorised User Community and clarification on F680 requirements," the U.K. said. "It also makes updates to the items not permitted by the licence, including additional nerve agents, prototypes for naval nuclear propulsion plant, test and maintenance equipment and test models for naval nuclear propulsion plant and prototypes."

The European Commission recently launched a new platform called the Responsible Mineral Information System, or ReMIS, to "increase transparency" in mineral supply chains. The voluntary system lets "economic operators" register and share their "due diligence policies and initiatives to ensure responsible sourcing of metals and minerals" and share best practices with the public, the commission said. The commission said it "has no impact on any legal obligations that economic operators may have under EU due diligence legislation."

The European Commission announced a new proposal Oct. 6 to shrink the size of its tariff-rate quota for steel to 18.3 million tons a year and double the tariff rate for out-of-quota steel to 50%. The proposal would decrease the quota by 47% from 2024 and double the current 25% tariff rate applicable to out-of-quota steel.

The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation is asking industry to complete its "sanctions perceptions" survey, which will "help inform how sanctions policy and services evolve to better serve UK businesses," the agency said in an Oct. 6 email to industry. "Your input is invaluable and will contribute to identifying knowledge gaps, exploring ways to improve industry compliance, minimising barriers to legitimate business and provide feedback on work undertaken/sanctions improvements over the past 18 months." The survey deadline is Oct. 10.

The Council of the European Union on Sept. 29 adopted a revised carbon border adjustment mechanism that's expected to exempt 90% of European importers from the new rules, representing the final hurdle before the rules can take effect.

The European Commission on Sept. 26 imposed antidumping duties on hot-rolled flat products of iron, and non-alloy or other-alloy steel from Egypt, Japan and Vietnam. The duties will apply for five years at rates of 11.7% for Egypt, 6.9% to 30% for Japan, and 12.1% for Vietnam. The duties that were provisionally imposed since April 7, 2024, "will not be collected retroactively," the commission said. In the AD investigation, goods from India also were also investigated, but the probe was "terminated without the imposition of duties, because it was not established that Indian imports were dumped."

The EU is again postponing implementation of its new deforestation reporting requirements, proposing a one-year delay because its IT system isn't ready to handle all the transactions for products covered by the regulation, Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall told the European Parliament Sept. 23.