The U.K. issued compound penalties to exporters that shipped unlicensed strategic exports on 10 separate occasions between March and November 2021, the Department for International Trade said Jan. 10. Ranging from around $1,362 to $73,450, the fines concerned unlicensed exports of dual use goods, military goods and related activity, the notice said. The highest fine was in July 2021 when an exporter was fined $73,450 over offenses "in relation to the export of military rated goods without the appropriate license."

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that she expressed strong support for Lithuania "in the face of economic coercion" during a call with European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis Jan. 7, and that the European Union and U.S. should work together to address coercive economic tactics "through various avenues, including the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council" (see 2201060034). The readout of the call also said they discussed steel and aluminum excess capacity. The U.S. replaced its tariffs on EU exporters in those sectors with tariff rate quotas that will last five years; it is Europe's goal to return to trade as it was before the Section 232 action.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she's ready to trigger Article 16 if talks over Northern Ireland with the EU fall through. In an opinion piece in The Telegraph, Truss said that to resolve the impasse, she may override parts of the post-Brexit agreement that impose a de facto customs border down the Irish Sea, making trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. more difficult. Truss is meeting her EU counterpart Jan. 13, and used her Telegraph piece to lay out her priorities.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, after speaking with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis Jan. 5, said that the U.S. supports Lithuania as it faces economic coercion from China, and that the U.S. wants to work with the European Union "to address coercive diplomatic and economic behavior. They discussed the importance to addressing our shared challenges through a close, transatlantic partnership that embraces and reflects U.S. and EU jointly-held values, which can be supported in part through the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council." China stopped allowing Lithuanian goods to enter China after Lithuania publicly supported Taiwan's independence (see 2112090012).

U.K. exporters reached deals worth nearly $95 million due to trade shows in South Korea sponsored by the Department for International Trade, the DIT said. Exports to South Korea from the U.K. jumped 9% in the June year-over-year comparison. The trade shows were part of DIT's Pavilion showcase series, which includes stalls set up for U.K. companies to show off their goods, DIT said. Companies that credit these shows as leading to deals with South Korean firms include Ceres Power, Intelligent Energy and Survitec.

The European Commission this week released an updated list of dual-use items and an updated correlation list between certain European Union tariff codes and goods that are subject to dual-use export restrictions. The updated list includes nine parts covering goods ranging from nuclear materials to electronics to aerospace and propulsion products, and the updated correlation list includes thousands of product codes.

The U.K. added one individual and one entity to its ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qaida sanctions regime, in a Jan. 4 financial sanctions notice. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation placed ISIL senior member Ashraf Al-Qizani and Jund Al-Khilafah, ISIL's wing in Tunisia established in November 2014, on the sanctions list. The two new listings will be subject to an asset freeze and a travel ban. In the same notice, OFSI also delisted the following from the ISIL sanctions regime: Mevlut Kar, Denis Mamadou Gerhard Cuspert, Nayef Salam Muhammad Ujaym Al-Hababi, Turki Mubarak Abdullah Ahmad Al-Binali and Tuah Febriwansyah.

The European Union General Court dropped the sanctions listing of former Ukrainian Minister of Revenue and Taxes Oleksandr Viktorovych Klymenko, annulling actions in March maintaining the designation, according to an unofficial translation. The ruling marks the fifth of its kind. The European Council used Ukraine's investigation of Klymenko for the embezzlement of public funds as the basis for the sanctions listing. The General Court, as it has done in the previous four rulings, said that the council hadn't adequately identified that the investigating judge had respected Klymenko's rights of defense or that the proceedings were being carried out in a reasonable time. This decision ends the matter because the Council didn't renew the sanctions listing in September 2021, an action that occurred after Klymenko in April 2021 initiated the latest petition for annulment of his listing.

The U.K. Department for International Trade updated the commodity codes for which antidumping and ccountervailing duties are applicable under the AD/CVD orders on glass fiber products from China. Also updated were the commodity codes for countervailing duties on glass fiber products from Egypt. It also updated the commodity codes for the tariff-rate quotas on steel products.

Switzerland's Federal Customs Administration officially changed its name Jan. 1 to the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security, the Swiss Federal Council said Jan. 3.