Poland recently revised its value-added taxes for some food, agricultural and energy goods, which could impact imports, KPMG said Jan. 31. The country eliminated the 5% VAT rate on various food items, including fish, dairy products, vegetables, fruit, cereals, baked goods and some beverages, the firm said. It also eliminated VATs on fertilizers, pesticides and potting soil and reduced VATs on diesel fuel and motor fuels from 23% to 8%. The new VAT rates are in effect through July 31.

A recently released Norwegian Refugee Council report, "Life and Death: NGO access to financial services in Afghanistan," focusing on how to transfer humanitarian funds into and around Afghanistan, says overcompliance with financial sanctions hampers access to humanitarian aid. It says that as a result, payment systems, including the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication and StoneX, have been made widely unavailable. The report recommended sanctions guidance be harmonized across international regulators and include clear guidance on the scope of the sanctions. Governments also should prioritize adopting the U.N.'s humanitarian exception into domestic legislation, the report said.

The United Kingdom announced the start of consultations with Israel over a trade deal during International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan's three-day visit to the Middle Eastern nation. Starting Feb. 2, the consultation period will run for eight weeks and seek the advice from concerned individuals and businesses over what they would like to see in any potential U.K.-Israel free trade agreement. The Department for International Trade said that the U.K. is Israel's third-largest trading partner with an overall trade relationship of over $6.5 billion.

The United Kingdom took a series of sanctions actions on Feb. 2, delisting one from its Iran (Human Rights) sanctions regime and amending an entry on the Venezuela and Libya sanctions lists. In one notice, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation took Mohammad Hejazi, former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Sarollah Corps in Tehran, off its Iranian sanctions list. In two other notices, OFSI amended the entries of Elvis Eduardo Amoroso, under the Venezuela sanctions regime, and Saadi Qadhafi, under the Libya sanctions regime.

The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation added three individuals to its Myanmar sanctions list in a Jan. 31 regulation. Thida Oo, Myanmar attorney general; Thein Soe, Union Election Commission chair; and Tin Oo, Anti-Corruption Commission in Myanmar chair, will now be subject to an asset freeze and travel ban. Separately, OFSI amended the entry for former Special Forces Commander Saadi Qadhafi, under its Libya sanctions regime, still subjecting him to an asset freeze.

Russia imposed travel bans on representatives of European Union member states in response to the bloc's sanctions on Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced, according to an unofficial translation. The number of sanctioned individuals is unknown, as are the names of the sanctioned parties. The notice specified that the listed individuals include European private military company leaders, law enforcement representatives, and legislative and executive agencies of various member states. The EU's sanctions are "hypocritical," seeing as the EU purportedly imposes the norms of its legislation "everywhere," Russia's Foreign Ministry said. "The European Union deplores the decision by Russian authorities, announced on Friday, to ban an unknown number of representatives of EU Member States and institutions from entry into Russia," the EU responded in a statement Jan. 28. "This decision lacks any legal justification and transparency and will meet an appropriate response. With it, Russia continues to fuel a climate of tensions in Europe instead of contributing to de-escalation."

Legislation intended to expand the criteria for which the United Kingdom can sanction individuals and companies under the country's Russia sanctions program will be sent to Parliament, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Jan. 31. The new regulations will allow sanctions to be imposed on any "any company that is linked to the Russian state, engages in business of economic significance to the Russian state, or operates in a sector of strategic significance to the Russian state" along with those who control these entities, Truss said before Parliament.

The United Kingdom and India concluded their first round of free trade agreement negotiations, which took place virtually over a two-week period, the Department for International Trade said Jan. 28. The two nations held 32 separate sessions covering 26 policy areas, including "Trade in Goods, Trade in Services including Financial Services & Telecommunications, Investment, Intellectual Property, Customs and Trade Facilitation, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Competition, Gender, Government Procurement, SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises], Sustainability, Transparency, Trade and Development, Geographical Indicators and Digital," the DIT said. The next round of talks will be held March 7-18.

The United Kingdom approved a humanitarian exception to its Afghanistan sanctions regime in line with the carve-out permitted by the United Nations. The change says activities that "support basic human needs in Afghanistan" don't violate the restrictive measures on the country. "Earlier this week the UK government adopted into law a humanitarian exception from UN sanctions meaning aid agencies can operate without fear of undue legal repercussions," the Department for International Trade said Jan. 28. "Previously, charities and humanitarian agencies trying to bring aid into Afghanistan faced legal difficulties as a result of UN sanctions against senior Taliban leaders."

The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended 48 entries on its Iran (Human Rights) sanctions regime and 20 entries on its restrictive measures list for Venezuela in two separate financial sanctions notices. OFSI also delisted four entries from the Iran sanctions list: Ahmad Zargar, former head of the "Organization for the Preservation of Morality"; Hassan Haddad, former deputy safety officer of Tehran Revolutionary Court; Mohammad Hejazi, former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Sarollah Corps in Tehran; and Seyyed Hasan Firuzabadi, former military adviser to the supreme leader.