An upcoming French ban on sales of fruit and vegetables with certain “identifying stickers” is poised to affect a range of U.S. agricultural exports, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report last week. The ban, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2022, aims to “eliminate disposable plastic” and will particularly restrict exports of U.S. sweet potatoes and grapefruits, which bear stickers for traceability and marketing purposes, USDA said. The agency said the restrictions are especially “problematic” for grapefruits because the U.S. is the fourth-largest grapefruit supplier to France. “U.S. exporters will only be able to ship grapefruits without stickers, creating logistical and marketing difficulties,” USDA said, adding that products shipped to other European Union countries can’t be rerouted to France. The provisions in France’s ban will also eventually affect U.S. exports of cranberries, lingonberries and blueberries, although the implementation of those measures takes effect later, USDA said.

The European Union kicked off a “new exporter” review of the antidumping duties on the imports of trichloroisocyanuric acid from China for three Chinese exporters, in a July 23 entry in the Official Journal of the European Union. Hebei Xingfei Chemical, Inner Mongolia Likang Bio-Tech and Shandong Lantian Disinfection Technology each requested review of the duties, providing sufficient evidence that they didn't export the product to the EU during the period of investigation on which the AD duties were originally based, the entry said. The new exporter review could potentially repeal the duty on the three companies' exports and subject the imports to registration.

Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Eloina Rodriguez Gomez will remain under the European Union's Venezuela sanctions regime after the European Union General Court rejected her application to annul the listings, a July 14 judgment said. The court said the European Council did not err in its finding that Rodriguez undermined democracy and the rule of law in Venezuela and that even if she no longer holds this position, she “remained linked to the regime.” This connection is enough to maintain the sanctions, the court said.

The free market should be championed over “green protectionism” to combat climate change, a July 21 report from the United Kingdom's Board of Trade - Green Trade said. The report seeks to challenge the narrative that free trade is an environmental threat by identifying multiple ways in which free markets can develop green technologies and facilitate the free flow of information, the U.K.'s Department for International Trade said in a news release. In particular, the U.K. trade agenda can “speed up the global green transition” by promoting green exports, reducing barriers to green trade and taking on environmentally harmful market distortions and attracting foreign investment for a green industrial base, the release said. “The UK is a leader in green exports and this report shows how free trade, free markets and free enterprise can be leveraged to counteract green protectionist policies that hold back the global transition to a low-carbon economy,” International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said.

The United Kingdom should hasten the imposition of sanctions on Myanmar businesses and other entities in key industries on which the ruling junta is dependent, a July 16 report from the U.K. House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee said. The report also called on the government to encourage other nations that do not have Myanmar sanctions in place to implement them and ensure that third-country financial institutions support U.K.-implemented sanctions placed on junta-backed businesses and individuals.

The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation added defense company JSC Agat-Electromechanical Plant to its Belarus sanctions regime, a July 21 notice said. The company, which is listed as one of a number of Belarusian defense companies on the State Authority for Military Industry of the Republic of Belarus website, will be subject to an asset freeze.

The European Council extended by six months the European Union terrorist list that established restrictive measures against 14 people and 21 entities, the EC said in a July 19 news release. The restrictions include an asset freeze and were initially established following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The sanctions, reviewed at least every six months, are now set to expire in January 2022. The terrorist list is separate from the EU's al-Qaida and ISIL sanctions regime.

The European Union is challenging Russia's government procurement policies, the bloc said in a July 19 news release. The EU is requesting consultations with Russia via the World Trade Organization dispute resolution process over three policies that restrict or prevent EU companies from selling to Russian state-owned enterprises. It cited Russia's discriminatory assessments of procurement bids, requirements for prior authorizations and national quota requirements in procurement. When the Russian entities assess goods for procurement, certain SOEs will deduct 15% to 30% from the offered price for domestic goods but still charge full price if the Russian bid is selected, putting foreign interests at a disadvantage. Such restrictions have been building since 2015, the release said. The economic impact of this has been “significant," with the value of published tenders by Russian SOEs in 2019 totaling over 290 billion euros and equivalent to 21% of Russia's GDP.

The United Kingdom opened a consultation period for interested parties to help shape new trading rules for developing countries, the Department for International Trade said in a July 19 news release. The proposed Developing Countries Trading Scheme would apply to 70 countries and includes lowering tariffs and simplifying rules of origin requirements for exports to the U.K., it said. The new scheme would look to take a “simpler, more generous, pro-growth approach to trading with developing countries,” the release said. The consultation period for the new rules will run for eight weeks.

The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended the listing for Anwar Ahmed Khan under its Global Human Rights sanctions regime, in a July 16 update. Khan, a Pakistani national and former senior superintendent of police in Pakistan's Malir District, was “responsible for numerous staged police encounters in which hundreds of individuals were extra-judicially killed by police,” his listing says.