The European Commission opened a public consultation regarding a list of U.S. imports that could become subject to tariffs in response to the flurry of U.S. trade action, should talks with the White House fall through, the commission announced. The list covers over $107 billion worth of U.S. imports, including a "broad range of industrial and agricultural products," it said.
Several European think tanks this week launched a new project with an interactive dashboard of graphics and analyses to help industry and governments better monitor the economic and trade relationship between China and Russia. The dashboard includes regularly updated charts and information about key trade between the two countries, including in fossil fuels, dual-use goods and machine tools. The project was created by the Centre for Eastern Studies, the Mercator Institute for China Studies, and the Swedish Institute of International Affairs' Swedish National China Centre and Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies.
The EU should take lessons learned from the “effectively dormant” U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (see 2503280039) and translate those into a new strategy for coordinating export controls and other trade issues with allies, the Paris-based Institut Montaigne think tank said in a report released this month.
The EU and the U.K. should strengthen trade and security ties in response to rising geopolitical tensions and threats posed by Russia, top European Parliament members said ahead of the first EU-U.K. summit May 19.
The U.K. has finished gathering public input from industry about the Trump administration’s recent tariff measures (see 2504030057) and is working to “rapidly” analyze the responses “while keeping all options on the table,” the country’s Department for Business and Trade said May 2. It also said possible trade negotiations with the U.S. to remove the tariffs “continue at pace and remain our focus.” The U.K. earlier this year published a list of over 8,000 goods imported from the U.S. that possibly could be hit with retaliatory tariffs.
EU and Lithuanian authorities last month raided a logistics business suspected of illegally exporting items to Russia and Belarus, seizing more than $1.7 million worth of goods from the company. The items allegedly were made in EU countries before the company rerouted them through Central Asian countries to circumvent EU sanctions, the European Anti-Fraud Office and the Lithuanian Customs Criminal Service said.
The EU and Canada on May 14 will hold a virtual "debrief" to industry members after the two sides' seventh annual meeting of their regulatory cooperation forum earlier that day. Registration for the debrief closes May 5. The forum was created under the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement to help the two sides better harmonize trade regulations.
The U.K. this week published a plan to reform its system for streamlining imports of goods that benefit from duty-free entry because they’re being imported temporarily, part of a broader package of tax updates released by the country’s revenue and customs agency. The changes will help businesses that import goods for short-term projects, exhibitions or events, the agency said, and “reflect the government’s commitment to a modern customs regime which supports businesses and responds to global trade and complex supply chains.” It’s also expecting the updates to “improve the customer experience for businesses engaging with customs.”
The EU this week updated its guidance about what types of Russia-related services are prohibited or exempt by sanctions. One new FAQ says EU nationals aren't necessarily barred from working for a Russian company as long as they aren't providing any of the EU's "listed" restricted services or software to the Russian government. "EU persons can still provide all services that are not prohibited in their capacity as employees," the guidance said.
The European Commission on April 28 imposed definitive countervailing duties on mobile access equipment from China. The duties range from 7.3% to 14.2% and accompany antidumping duties imposed by the comission on the same products in January. The commission said the combined AD and CVD measures now range from 20.6% and 66.7%.