The European Union has launched a helpdesk for importers and exporters to find new market opportunities, potential partners and answers to questions on requirements and procedures in the EU and the Eastern Partnership countries, the European Commission said. The Eastern Partnership countries are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The European Union is imposing an antidumping duty on certain utility scale steel wind towers from China, the European Commission said in a Dec. 15 implementing regulation. The investigation was initiated following a complaint from the European Wind Tower Association, which alleged that these towers were harming the domestic European industry. After looking into the matter, the commission deemed this allegation is correct and that a corrective antidumping duty was warranted.

The European Union initiated a pair of anti-circumvention investigations into its antidumping and countervailing duty orders on certain woven and/or stitched glass fiber fabrics from China and Egypt, consigned from Turkey, the European Commission said. The investigation will cover certain woven and/or stitched glass fiber fabrics consigned from Turkey, whether declared as originating in Turkey or not. The investigations were initiated after TECH-FAB Europe requested them in November, alleging that assembly operations in Turkey substantially increased after the imposition of the orders.

The United Kingdom is making changes to the structure and format of the U.K. Sanctions List, with the alterations set to take effect in February 2022, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said. OFSI issued a guidance to users of the list to anticipate the changes. The amendments include data standardization to drop duplications, unnecessary punctuation and improve consistency; and new fields designed to increase the detail and structure of the data. Some of these new fields include "name type" that shows whether a name is a primary name, primary name variation or alias; "passport additional information"; and "National Identifier additional information," which will describe the source of a number that is listed in a national identity card, for instance. The format changes also include alterations to some field names to make their purpose clearer. An example of this change includes changing the "Individual, Entity, Ship - Vessel" field to "Ship" to align with the terminology in the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018.

Cryptocurrency transactions risk violating sanctions regulations in addition to posing money laundering and terrorist financing risks, Dutch Central Bank De Nederlandsche Bank said in a draft Q&A on complying with sanctions measures for such transactions, according to an unofficial translation. The bank is running a consultation period that is set to close on Dec. 17. The Q&A covers such questions as who falls within the scope of the "relationship" insofar as crypto providers take measures to check whether relationships have been sanctioned, and what measures does a crypto service provider take when transacting with crypto to check whether the individuals or entities involved have been sanctioned. The guidance also discusses good practice for cryptocurrency service providers and risk analysis.

The United Kingdom added four entities to its Myanmar sanctions regime, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said in a Dec. 12 notice. The new entries are the Directorate for Defence Industries, the Directorate for Defence Procurement, the Myanmar War Veterans Organisation and the Quarter Master General Office. All four entities sit under the Myanmar Ministry of Defence, an entity responsible for the February coup in the Southeast Asian nation and for generally undermining democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar. The four are subject to an assets freeze.

The European Union amended the criteria under its Mali sanctions regime, adding the ability to autonomously impose restrictive measures on individuals and entities culpable for "threatening the peace, security or stability of Mali, or for obstructing the implementation of its political transition," the European Council said. The move allows the EU to impose sanctions, whereas until now it could only put into legislation any sanctions decisions made by the United Nations. The change also follows up on a Foreign Affairs Council agreement that intended to establish a framework for sanctions on Mali in support of the Economic Community of West African States' restrictive measures on Malian transition authorities.

The European Commission removed Jean-Claude Kazembe Musonda from its Democratic Republic of the Congo sanctions regime, per a Dec. 10 implementing regulation replacing the list of sanctioned individuals. Failing to appear on the updated list, Musonda -- the former governor of Haut-Katanga province and a leader of the CONAKAT party -- was removed due to his death in July.

The European Union initiated an antidumping investigation on ceramic tiles from India and Turkey, the European Commission said in a Dec. 13 notice. Specifically, the commission will look into "ceramic flags and paving, hearth or wall tiles; ceramic mosaic cubes and the like, whether or not on a backing; finishing ceramic," following an allegation from the European Ceramic Tile Manufacturers' Association that imports of the subject goods are harming the European industry. The investigation will cover exports from the two countries into the EU for the period July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.

The European Union imposed sanctions against the Wagner Group, a "Russia-based unincorporated private military entity," the European Council said in a Dec. 13 press release. Including an asset freeze and travel ban, the restrictive measures apply to the Wagner group itself along with eight individuals and three entities related to the group. The EC declared that the Wagner Group has trained and sent private military operatives to hot spots around the world to "fuel violence, loot natural resources and intimidate civilians in violation of international law." Areas where the Wagner Group have operated include Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic and the Sahel region. The sanctions were arranged under four different sanctions regimes: the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime; the sanctions regimes for Libya and Syria; and the regime for undermining Ukraine's territorial integrity, the EC said.