The EU General Court annulled the sanctions listing of Xavier Antonio Moreno Reyes, the secretary general of the National Electoral Council of Venezuela, in a July 14 ruling. The court dropped the sanctions designation after finding that the European Council had not established that the reasons for his listing were "well founded." The sanctions listing was not well-founded since the council did not show that Moreno Reyes approved the decisions of the National Electoral Council.
The European Commission began a review of existing antidumping duties on sodium cyclamate from China, a June 28 notice in the Official Journal of the European Union said. Productos Aditivos requested the review following the publication of the expiration notice for the duties. The commission will decide if an extension of the duties is necessary to further protect the European sodium cyclamate industry, the notice said. The period under investigation is July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.
The European Commission believes that a consolidated text proposed by the chair of the fisheries ministerial meeting in the World Trade Organization can pave the way for the final part of the negotiations, the commission said in a July 15 news release. “Protecting global fisheries resources is a shared responsibility and, as such, achieving a multilateral outcome is the only way to address the issue of harmful subsidies,” Executive Vice President and Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis said in a statement. “We welcome” WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s “commitment to reaching an agreement ahead of the 12th Ministerial Conference and we are fully committed to this objective. The mandate laid out in UN Sustainable Development Goal 14.6 must remain our guide in these negotiations.”
European Union candidate countries of North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania along with the European Free Trade Association nations of Iceland and Norway aligned their sanctions regimes with that of the European Union on Belarus, the European Council said in a July 13 news release. The newest wave of sanctions on Belarus banned the sale, transfer or export of dual-use goods and technologies for military use to anyone in Belarus (see 2106250009). The sanctions concern the May 23 forced landing of a Ryanair flight and subsequent arrest of journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega.
The European Council introduced a new "buy and donate" directive that imposes a temporary value-added tax exemption on imports of certain supplies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a July 13 press release. The goal is to make it easier for the European Commission and European Union agencies to purchase goods and services then distribute them for free to member states. "Through this update, purchases of goods and services by an EU body on behalf of member states to respond to the emergency posed by the COVID-19 pandemic are temporarily added to the list of exempted transactions in the VAT directive," the release said. The directive will apply retroactively from Jan. 1, 2021.
The European Parliament passed a resolution on July 8 calling for sanctions on high-ranking Nicaraguan officials responsible for human rights violations. The resolution called for President Daniel Ortega, Vice-President Rosario Murillo and their "inner circle" to be sanctioned while "taking particular care to do no harm to the Nicaraguan people." The resolution points to an increasingly dire situation following the "violent repression of civic protests" in April 2018, after which more than 100,000 people have been forced to flee the Central American nation.
The European Commission, along with the European External Action Service, released a guidance on July 12 for European Union businesses to help combat forced labor in supply chains. The guidance lays out the many EU and international mechanisms on responsible business conduct that apply to fighting forced labor. The commission also highlighted the practical considerations for supply chain due diligence, laying out the six-step framework from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on proper due diligence. The steps include embedding responsible conduct into the company's policies, tracking implementation, cooperating in remediation and more. The guidance also includes a section on identifying risk factors for forced labor and other considerations for responsible business conduct.
Global champagne exports have increased by nearly half this year after a steep drop in demand during 2020, according to a July 13 Bloomberg report. The report, which cites French government trade statistics, said the exports have risen by 43% so far this year. French champagne exports to the U.S. have risen 74% during the first five months of 2021 compared with the same period a year ago, the report added, while exports to China rose by 153%.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation updated two listings under its Belarus sanctions regime in a July 12 notice. The listings for Leanid Mikalaievich Churo and the Belaeronavigatsia Republican Unitary Air Navigation Services Enterprise, of which Churo is an employee, were amended to change the word "Unity" to "Unitary" in the entity's name. Both are still subject to an asset freeze.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended the Syria sanctions listing of Salam Tohme in a July 12 financial sanctions notice. The update changed Tohme's listed gender from Female to Male. Tohme is still subject to an asset freeze.