The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on April 19 partially dismissed a lawsuit from sanctioned individuals Mir Rahman Rahmani and Hafi Ajmal Rahmani and over two dozen of their companies challenging their sanctions listing for their alleged role in a corruption scheme that swiped millions of dollars from U.S. contracts in Afghanistan (Mir Rahman Rahmani v. Janet Yellen, D.D.C. # 24-00285).
Turkey's Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy, chair of the World Trade Organization's agriculture negotiations, said "fresh thinking" is needed to end the stagnation in current agriculture talks, the WTO said. Addressing the participating members of the ag negotiating body during the first meeting since the 13th Ministerial Conference, Acarsoy urged members not to ditch "past efforts" despite the disappointment felt after a deal was not struck at MC13.
A World Trade Organization dispute panel issued its report on Australia's dispute against Chinese antidumping and countervailing duties on Australian wine after the parties reached a mutually agreed solution to the case. Australia argued that China's AD/CVD violated numerous elements of both the Anti-Dumping Agreement and the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement. The parties told the dispute settlement body that they reached a settlement on March 29.
The European Commission added to its sanctions FAQs for the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts on April 18.
The EU General Court last week rejected a challenge from Belgium and Czech Republic-based company Cogebi to EU import restrictions on Russian-made mica products. The court said that the European Council had laid out sufficient reasons for barring the import of mica products in that the council appropriately found the sale of mica products to "generate significant revenues for the Russian Federation."
Florida-based steel traders John Unsalan and Sergey Karpushkin were sentenced to six years and 21 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in a scheme to help Russian oligarch Sergey Kurchenko violate U.S. sanctions, DOJ announced.
EU Advocate General Laila Medina last week said that the "authentication by a notary of a contract of sale of immovable property owned by a legal person established in Russia" isn't covered by the EU's sanctions provisions on Russia, "as long as the engagement in transactions is allowed for that person under that regulation and the authentication is not supplemented by legal advice."
China announced that it is "firmly opposed" to both the U.S. decision to open a new Section 301 investigation on allegedly unfair practices in China's maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors (see 2404170029) and President Joe Biden's call for a "tripling" of the existing Section 301 tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum (see 2404170040).
The EU on April 16 requested consultations with the U.K. under the EU-U.K. Trade and Cooperation Agreement's dispute settlement system pertaining to the U.K.'s ban on the fishing of sandeel, the European Commission announced.
A group of European countries not in the EU aligned with a recent EU sanctions move under its restrictions regime to combat human rights abuses. Earlier this month, the Council of the EU introduced a humanitarian exemption to its sanctions regime. The countries of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway also imposed the decision, the council announced.