The EU last week added eight people to its Democratic Republic of the Congo sanctions regime and extended the restrictions for another year. The eight include a member of the Congolese army, a DRC politician and a Belgian businessman, most of whom are accused of serious human rights violations and abuses for their role in the armed conflict in the DRC, the European Council said. Others were listed for benefiting from the conflict via the illegal exploitation of the natural resources trade. The renewal extends these sanctions until Dec. 12, 2023.

The Commercial Court of England and Wales is looking for information on insurance policy claims brought by aircraft lessors over the alleged loss of assets leased to Russian airlines since the invasion of Ukraine. While various cases have already been brought before the court, the judicial body seeks to understand the potential total number of actions that may be involved, what the issues might be in broad terms and whether any case management steps should be taken to answer these questions. Interested parties can contact the Commercial Court at comct.listing@justice.gov.uk by Dec. 16.

Russia is mulling the prospect of installing a price floor for international oil sales in retaliation for the price cap imposed on Russian oil set by G-7 nations, Bloomberg reported. Moscow is weighing two options: a fixed price for Russian oil or imposing maximum discounts to international benchmarks. There is no information yet about what the exact level may be. One of the unnamed officials told Bloomberg Russia is looking to install a market-based transparent pricing mechanism for oil buyers to respond to the price cap, as Moscow does not want to alienate neutral states. The discount approach would set a "maximum discount of Russian oil to global benchmarks, which the nation’s crude producers will not be allowed to exceed," Bloomberg reported. The discount, along with the other option of a fixed price, would be regularly revised.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA's) Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group (SMSG) recently released a paper on the geopolitical risks surrounding depositary receipts. The SMSG looked into the effect of both EU and Russian sanctions on DRs and asks for guidance and a harmonized approach from the ESMA and European Commission over how EU citizens can maintain their asset rights in Russian companies.

The EU General Court annulled the sanctions listing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on the EU's terrorism restrictions list, but it dismissed the PKK's challenge to its 2015-2017 and 2019 sanction designations. The General Court in 2018 annulled the PKK's 2014-2017 designations, noting the justification of the initial designation in 2002 was too old to determine if the group's involvement in terrorist activities at the time of that initial designation continued from 2014 to 2017.The European Court of Justice overturned its judgment in 2021, referring the case back to the General Court.

The EU extended the sanctions listing criteria for designation under the Democratic Republic of the Congo restrictions regime. The criteria now allows "for the application of targeted restrictive measures against natural or legal persons, entities or bodies that sustain, support or benefit from the armed conflict, instability or insecurity in the DRC."

U.K. Minister for Trade Policy Greg Hands is traveling across the U.S. to meet with various state officials on boosting trade ties at the state level, the Department for International Trade announced Dec. 7. During the trip, Hands will sign the U.K.'s third memorandum of understanding with a U.S. state to increase trade and investment.

The European Council and Parliament struck a provisional deal to minimize deforestation and forest degradation risk for EU imports and exports, the council announced. The deal, if formally adopted by both bodies, would set mandatory due diligence rules for all traders who "place, make available or export" palm oil, beef, timber, coffee, cocoa, rubber and soy from the EU market.

The U.K. recently released four general licenses pertaining to its recent price cap on Russian oil. The first license, "Oil Price Cap: Exempt Projects and Countries," permits the supply Russian oil in certain scenarios. One such instance is the supply of Russian oil from the Sakhalin-2 Project from a place in Russia to a place in Japan, which is permitted through Sept. 29.

Bloomberg released a report this week analyzing how recent geopolitical events since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have reshaped traditional trading relationships. The report concluded the U.S. is regularly importing more goods from Europe than from China, China is exporting a greater share of its goods to non-U.S. markets, Brexit boosted costs and reduced market access for British exporters, China uses its economic power to achieve strategic goals, and Germany was slow to cut off Russian imports after the invasion of Ukraine.