The U.K. on April 30 added three individuals to its global anti-corruption sanctions regime, according to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. Anita Annet Among, speaker of parliament of Uganda; Mary Goretti Kitutu, former Ugandan minister for Karamoja affairs; and Agnes Nandutu, former state minister for Karamoja Affairs in Uganda, are each subject to an asset freeze.
The EU and Japan on April 30 held their second Digital Partnership Council, agreeing on "new deliverables to further cooperate on core digital technologies," including artificial intelligence, 5G, 6G, semiconductors, high performance computing (HPC) and quantum technology, the European Commission announced.
The EU's directive regarding the criminalization of sanctions violations will take effect May 19. The bloc added the directive to its official journal, saying member states have 12 months to incorporate the policies into their internal rules. The new rules, among other things, set minimum penalties for sanctions violations and define sanctions violations (see 2404150010).
Trade lawyers said that recent legislation expanding the statute of limitations on sanctions violations from five to 10 years comes with clear expectations: costlier and longer sanctions investigations.
Australia, Japan and Singapore, the co-convenors of the e-commerce negotiations at the World Trade Organization, said during their April 22-25 talks that work will shift to the "final decision-making phase" during which members will focus on "domestic consultations and conduct political outreach to try to close the gaps on remaining issues," the WTO said.
The U.K. added a general license under its Russia and Belarus sanctions regime allowing legal service providers to receive and send payments to and from or on behalf of a sanctioned party. Sanctioned parties are likewise allowed to "pay professional legal fees, Counsel's fees, and/or Expenses to a Law Firm, a Legal Adviser, Counsel or a provider of Expenses for Legal Services which have been provided to that" sanctioned party. The legal fees may not exceed 1 million British pounds "per Law Firm" for the duration of the license, which ends Oct. 28.
The U.K. on April 29 amended the entry for Sanaullah Ghafari under its ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qaida sanctions regime, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced. The listing was updated to reflect that Ghafari is the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - Khorasan.
The free trade agreement between China and Ecuador will enter into force May 1, China's Ministry of Commerce announced, according to an unofficial translation. The ministry said the agreement will cancel tariffs on about 90% of goods, with 60% of them to take effect immediately on the day the agreement takes effect. The two countries will establish closer ties in areas such as "rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical trade barriers, trade remedies, dispute settlement, investment cooperation, e-commerce, competition, economic cooperation and so on."
China expressed serious concern over the Japanese government's announcement of plans to implement new export controls on semiconductors and other technologies, according to a summary of answers to reporters' questions from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, according to an unofficial translation. The ministry said the move is an effort to generalize the notion of national security and abuse export control measures to fragment the global semiconductor market. The result will "seriously affect the normal trade exchanges between Chinese and Japanese companies" and damage the global supply chain. China said it will "take necessary measures" to safeguard its interests.
The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body met on April 26 and was introduced to the new facilitator of the dispute settlement reform talks: Mauritius's Usha Dwarka-Canabady, the WTO announced. The chair of the DSB, Norway's Petter Olberg, said that Dwarka-Canabady accepted the role on April 18 after the "convenor" of the reform process left.