The European Council on Dec. 21 agreed to give European and British electric vehicle makers until Dec. 31, 2026, to comply with the local content requirements for EVs and batteries under the EU-U.K. Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the council said. The more stringent rules of origin, along with up to a 10% tariff on goods that failed to meet the requirements, were set to take effect Jan. 1. The bloc proposed the extension earlier this month, saying the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and foreign subsidies led to a slower scaling-up of the EU battery industry than it had expected (see 2312080074).

The European Commission on Dec. 20 opened an antidumping investigation on biodiesel from China following a complaint from EU biodiesel producers. Those producers submitted evidence of biodiesel imports from China coming in at "artificially low prices," the commission said, adding that the producers said the imports are "seriously harming their industry because they cannot compete with such low prices." The EU biodiesel industry is worth nearly $34 billion annually, the commission said.

The EU and Kenya on Dec. 18 officially signed an Economic Partnership Agreement, which will provide duty-free EU market access for Kenyan products and gradually open the Kenyan market to EU goods (see 2312120014). The deal takes effect after it's approved by the European Parliament and the two parties have alerted one another of the "completion of their internal legal procedures," the European Council said.

Women who advocate for businesses in the EU and in the U.S. complained that while the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council is better than nothing, it has neglected the "trade" part of its title.

The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on Dec. 18 amended entries under its Russia and Iran sanctions regimes.

The U.K. last week renewed the antidumping duties on certain aluminum road wheels from China for another five years. The 22.3% dumping rate for all overseas exporters will now run until Jan. 25, 2027. Cast aluminum road wheels may enter without the AD applied.

The European Council and the European Parliament on Dec. 14 negotiated new rules that will make up its upcoming corporate sustainability due diligence directive, which will require companies to conduct specific due diligence on their supply chains to address various environmental and social concerns, including forced labor risks (see 2202230073). The “provisional” agreement still needs to be formally adopted by both the council and the parliament before it takes effect.

The U.K. on Dec. 15 sanctioned Russia-based Joint Stock Commercial Bank Novikombank. The country's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said the bank conducts business in a sector of "strategic significance" to the Russian government. OFSI also amended the listings for 27 other Russia-related entries.

The European Parliament is pushing the EU to impose new sanctions against government officials for human rights abuses in Belarus and Tibet.

The proposed European Union forced labor trade ban waits to stop goods until after a government investigation finds the goods contain forced labor, in contrast to the U.S. approach, which automatically bans all imports that are suspected to be made with forced labor, without a separate investigation, trade lawyer John Foote said.