The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control will allow for stock in Luokung Technology to be traded on U.S. exchanges until May 8, the company said in a March 11 news release. Luokung was previously designated as a Chinese military company and was scheduled for delisting on the NASDAQ on March 15. The company is fighting the designation in court, though a temporary restraining order request was dropped at Luokung's request due to the OFAC decision on March 11. Another Chinese company, Xiaomi, was recently granted a preliminary injunction over its designation (see 2103150035). Due to news of the court ruling in Xiaomi's favor, Luokung's stock shot up March 15, according to a press report on the NASDAQ website.
The European Union notified the United Kingdom about its breaching of provisions of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland in the withdrawal agreement signed following Britain's departure from the EU. The March 15 letter of formal notice said the U.K. has violated the terms of the Ireland and Northern Ireland provisions regarding the movement of goods and pet travel, the European Commission said in a March 16 news release. The EU gave the U.K. a month to respond to the notice. The EU is challenging the U.K.'s extension of the Brexit grace period on food imports to Northern Ireland. EC Vice President Maros Sefcovic sent a separate letter to David Frost, U.K. co-chair of the Joint Committee, calling on the U.K. to end the Brexit grace period and imploring “good faith” consultations with the Joint Committee.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia temporarily blocked Chinese consumer electronics giant Xiaomi's designation as a Chinese military company, in a March 12 ruling. Judge Rudolph Contreras said the Department of Defense's decision to designate Xiaomi, thus forbidding U.S. citizens from purchasing Xiaomi securities, lacked substantial evidence. He said DOD provided an “inadequate” explanation as to why its decision was made and the source of authority for making the designation.
With large purchase agreements yet to be filled, the European Union extended its vaccine export control regime until the end of June, the European Commission announced March 11. The controls apply only to companies with which the EU has negotiated an advance purchase agreement and require these companies to notify their member state authorities of their intention to export COVID-19 vaccines. To date, only one export of vaccines has been denied, with the EU blocking a shipment of more than 250,000 vaccine doses from British vaccine developer AstraZeneca to Australia (see 2103080006). The EC said it has granted 249 export requests to 31 different countries for a total of over 34 million doses since they did not threaten underlying APAs with the EU.
European Council President Charles Michel criticized the United Kingdom in a March 9 newsletter for blocking COVID-19 vaccine exports to the EU while justifying the controls the EU set up in January (see 2102010012). “The United Kingdom and the United States have imposed an outright ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components produced on their territory,” Michel said. “But the European Union, the region with the largest vaccine production capacity in the world, has simply put in place a system for controlling the export of doses produced in the EU.” A U.K. government spokesperson said Great Britain has not blocked the export of a single vaccine. In a statement, the spokesperson said, “Any references to a UK export ban or any restrictions on vaccines are completely false. This pandemic is a global challenge and international collaboration on vaccine development continues to be an integral part of our response,” Reuters reported.
Following a package of measures meant to flush out ties between United Kingdom businesses and forced labor practices in China's Xinjiang region, compliance efforts have ramped up to ensure that supply chains are free of any association with the practice imposed on the region's Uighur Muslim population. In October 2020 and January of this year, U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced a suite of four policies meant to eliminate forced labor from supply chains (see 2101120056). The policies include business guidance to U.K. companies with links to Xinjiang; strengthening the Modern Slavery Act (MSA), that includes levying fines for non-compliance; transparency requirements for government procurement; and a review of export controls to Xinjiang.
A month after the Jan. 29 imposition of export controls on vaccines in the European Union (see 2102010012), industry experts say the controls were meant only to send a message to vaccine manufacturers at risk of failing to fulfill their contracts, and that the measures have no real risk of drastically reorienting global vaccine supply chains. The controls were issued as a way to make sure British pharmaceutical company and vaccine developer AstraZeneca satisfied commitments to the EU and didn't redirect vaccine shipments to the United Kingdom, among other locations, experts said. The EU has yet to use the export authorization regime.
Germany will now generally issue export permits electronically, using the platform to issue permits, null notifications, trade information and extensions, and changes to notices in foreign trade law, the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control said, according to an unofficial translation. The switch, effective March 1, takes place on Germany's ELAN-K2 filing portal. The German government will still issue general permits, permits for repeated export after previous import and transit permits in writing, and it reserves the right to issue any approval in writing if it is needed, it said.
In a case against an Iranian banker accused of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran, Judge Alison Nathan for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York lambasted federal prosecutors over their mishandling of evidence and dereliction of responsibility. Stopping short of finding them guilty of knowingly withholding crucial information or intentionally misrepresenting facts to the court, Nathan in a Feb. 22 ruling called for a full investigation of the prosecutors' actions by the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility and said she hopes the government's reforms on evidence handling training will ensure that similar action is not repeated.
Saudi Arabia will stop contracting with any foreign company that has its regional headquarters outside the kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency said Feb. 17. The new regulation will take effect Jan. 1, 2024, and includes agencies, institutions and government-owned funds. The move was made as part of the Riyadh 2030 initiative and comes on the heels of the Future Investment Initiative forum held in Riyadh in January. SPA said 24 international companies announced their intent to move their regional headquarters to the capital at the FII forum, coming into compliance with the new regulation.