EU and Chinese officials met in Beijing last week to discuss the possibility of using an agreement on price "undertakings" for electric vehicles instead of countervailing duties on Chinese EVs, the bloc's Directorate-General for Trade announced Nov. 8. The two sides negotiated how to set up a "minimum import price" for the EVs, along with monitoring and enforcement tools.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York this month denied a request from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. to help the company obtain access to certain discovery documents that are restricted by the Bureau of Industry and Security. Judge Cheryl Pollak said that while DOJ marked hundreds of thousands of documents at a lower level of classification than BIS, which would give Huawei greater access to the records, the documents are "still subject to further review by BIS" (United States v. Huawei Technologies, E.D.N.Y. # 18-00457).
The U.K. on Nov. 7 sanctioned Denis Sergeev, a senior officer in the Russian Military Intelligence Service, for his ties to Russia's use of chemical weapons. The U.K.'s said Sergeev was involved in the attempted 2018 Novichok nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury, England, of a former Russian military officer and double agent for the British intelligence agencies.
China formally filed a dispute at the World Trade Organization on Nov. 6 challenging the EU's definitive countervailing duties on new battery electric vehicles from China. The request for consultations continues a dispute China started on the EU's provisional CV duties on Chinese EVs (see 2408140010).
China said it will continue its challenge at the World Trade Organization against the EU's countervailing duties on Chinese electric vehicles. The nation's Ministry of Commerce said on Nov. 4 it believes the EU's duties "lack both factual and legal grounds," violate WTO rules and stand as a "pretext for trade protectionism," according to an unofficial translation.
Turkish national Taskin Torlak was arrested Nov. 2 for allegedly conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions by scheming to ship oil from Venezuela to benefit the country's state-owned oil and natural gas company Petroleos de Venezuela, DOJ announced.
A Virginia-based freight consolidation and forwarding business and two of its executives were charged with conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act after they allegedly exported goods and technology to Russia by transshipping them through Turkey, Finland and Kazakhstan, DOJ announced Nov. 4.
Oil trader Gary Oztemel will pay $301,575 to settle charges that he violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for paying over $1 million in bribes to Brazilian officials to secure contracts for two U.S. energy corporations. Oztemel pleaded guilty in June to money laundering, leading to the final plea settlement.
The EU will maintain sanctions on 15 individuals and four entities under the North Korea sanctions regime, the European Council announced on Oct. 31. The entities are Pan Systems Pyongyang, Korea Paekho Trading Corp., Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Centre and Korean People's Army.
South Korea sanctioned 11 people and four entities in response to North Korea's Oct. 31 launch of a long-range ballistic missile, Korea's foreign ministry announced on Nov. 1, according to an unofficial translation. The sanctioned parties are involved in missile development and earning foreign currency for North Korean workers operating abroad. The restrictions will take effect Nov. 6.