Switzerland added guidance under its Russia sanctions regime pertaining to documents considered valid "proof of the country of origin" for iron and steel goods, according to an unofficial translation. The guidance updated Section 2.1.4, according to the EU Sanctions blog, and said factory test certificates are sufficient proof for COO along with invoices, delivery notes, quality certificates, long-term supplier declarations, production documents, the exporting country's customs forms, trade correspondence and exclusion clauses. Switzerland also laid out when this proof is needed, noting that the forms aren't required when importing steel products from the EU or the U.K. or reimporting goods that have already been in free circulation in Switzerland.
The EU this week issued 11 new frequently asked questions to provide importers more guidance on its trade restrictions for iron and steel products made with Russian inputs. The FAQs provide more guidance on conducting due diligence on iron and steel products processed in third countries with inputs from Russia, whether the restrictions apply to temporary imports, country of origin documentation requirements.
The European Commission on Oct. 4 officially launched a countervailing duty investigation on electric vehicle batteries from China. The investigation, previewed in September by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (see 2309140009), will focus on whether the battery value chains in China benefit from "illegal subsidization," and, if so, whether these subsidies cause or threaten economic injury to EU manufacturers, the commission said. If both are true, the commission said, it will determine if it is in the bloc's interest to remedy the subsidies via duties. The commission said that, per World Trade Organization rules, it carried out pre-initiation consultations with the Chinese government. The commission said the investigation will take a maximum of 13 months, and anti-subsidy duties may be taken nine months after initiation.
The European Commission this week issued a list of 10 critical technology areas that it plans to focus on as part of its economic security strategy, which outlined in June plans to improve export controls and study whether it needs better investment screening guardrails (see 2306200052). Of the 10 categories, the commission singled out four technology areas -- advanced semiconductor technologies, artificial intelligence technologies, quantum technologies and biotechnologies -- that are “highly likely to present the most sensitive and immediate risks related to technology security and technology leakage.”
Damen Shipyards Group, the Netherlands' largest shipbuilder, filed a lawsuit against the Dutch government for losses sustained due to the sanctions on Russia, a company spokesperson told us. Bloomberg first reported this week that the company filed suit at the Court of Rotterdam in May. The case is expected to proceed next year.
The European Parliament on Oct. 3 voted to pass the bloc's proposed Anti-Coercion Instrument, which will allow EU to impose countermeasures, including tariffs and other trade and investment restrictions, on third countries for economic coercion (see 2306060019).
A group of European countries not in the EU aligned with two recent sanctions decisions from the European Council, one under the Guinea-Bissau restrictions list and one pertaining to the situation in Iran.
The U.K. issued a General License Sept. 29 under its Russia sanctions regime to provide certainty that a credit or financial institution can return a payment to another such institution which has been processed by a sanctioned credit or financial institution at some point in the payment chain. The license applies when the sanctioned party acted as an original, correspondent or intermediary institution where the recipient institution and the institution that sent the payment are not designated parties, and the original account holder and the original intended recipient are not sanctioned parties. The license expires at the end of the day on Dec. 1.
An academic and a think tank scholar agreed that, despite the upcoming visit between the EU president and the U.S. president, they don't expect the global arrangement on steel and aluminum negotiations to conclude by their Oct. 31 deadline.
The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism officially entered its transitional phase Oct. 1, requiring traders to report, but not yet pay, taxes on carbon emissions associated with certain imports. During the transitional phase (see 2308170033), the mechanism will apply to imports of cement, iron and steel, aluminum, fertilizers, electricity and hydrogen. EU importers of those goods must report on the volume of those imports and the greenhouse gas emissions “embedded during their production,” the European Commission said Sept. 29.