The European Union extended its Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime for another year, until Dec. 8, 2022, the European Council said. The measures subjects 14 individuals a travel ban and asset freeze and four entities to an asset freeze. Further, individuals and entities in the EU are precluded from making funds available to listed entities, either directly or indirectly.

The United Kingdom is facing a series of crises disrupting supply chains touched off by the "perfect storm" of COVID-19 and Brexit, Kent-based trade organization Logistics UK said in a new report. Of these is a massive truck driver shortage, due to which the U.K. saw a 24% drop in heavy goods vehicles, amounting to 72,000 fewer HGV drivers. Part of this stark drop is the fewer number of drivers from the European Union operating in the U.K., with the number of HGV drivers from the European bloc falling by 35%. The drop among U.K. nationals was 21%. The U.K. also saw a 32% drop in forklift drivers, the report said.

The United Kingdom designated Hamas a terrorist organization, according to an order made under the amended Terrorism Act 2000 that went into effect Nov. 26. The order designates both Hamas' military and political wings as terrorist entities, after the U.K. proscribed only the group's military wing in 2001. The U.K. said it now sees effectively no difference between Hamas' military and political wings and the group is involved in "committing, participating, preparing for, and encouraging acts of terrorism," the Home Office said.

U.S. craft beer and distilled spirit exporters could soon see “great opportunities” in the Netherlands and Scandinavia as bars reopen and demand rises for high-value products, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service said Dec. 3. USDA said the COVID-19 pandemic led to a steep drop in beer sales in those countries due to lockdowns, but their beer and spirit markets could be growing as restrictions loosen. “With the EU eliminating retaliatory tariffs on U.S. whiskey and the re-opening of restaurants and bars, the potential for future growth for U.S. craft beer and distilled spirit exports is promising,” USDA said.

The EU General Court issued judgments Nov. 24 in four Syria sanctions annulment applications. The court annulled Bashar Assi's and Khaldoun Al Zoubi's listings, noting the EU had failed to show that either man was a leading businessperson or associated with the regime when the sanctions acts were enacted, the opinion said.

The European Union should impose sanctions and export restrictions on Israel-based NSO Group over accusations that the company provided spyware to hack human rights activists and journalists, more than 80 human rights groups and other activists wrote to the EU. In a Dec. 3 letter, the groups said NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware was reportedly used to hack the devices of Palestinian human rights activists, “further evidence of a pattern of human rights abuses facilitated by NSO Group through spyware sales to governments that use the technology to persecute civil society and social movements in many countries around the world.” The groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, pointed to the U.S. Commerce Department’s November decision to add NSO Group to the Entity List (see 2111030010). “The EU should follow suit and urgently put NSO on its global sanction list and take all appropriate action to prohibit the sale, transfer, export, import and use of NSO Group technologies, as well as the provision of services that support NSO Group's products until adequate human rights safeguards are in place,” said the letter, which was addressed to EU member states and Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief. The NSO Group didn’t immediately comment.

The European Union General Court on Nov. 24 dismissed an application from the European Political Subdivision of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to drop its inclusion on the EU's terrorist sanctions list. The ruling upholds the group's place on the sanctions regime and said the European Council could rely on the 2001 decision by the United Kingdom home secretary to list the LTTE because the U.K. government is a "competent authority" for the purpose of making the sanctions listing. The court also said that the EU had sufficiently backed the listing action in 2019-2020.

A host of countries aligned with the European Union's recent sanctions measures concerning the situation in Guinea, cyberattacks against the EU or its member states and Turkey's unauthorized drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean, the European Council said. North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Ukraine and Moldova aligned with the Guinea sanctions regime that extends to Oct. 27, 2022, the council noted Dec. 2.

Ukraine has added 23 Russian nationals and five Ukranian citizens to its sanctions regime in a Nov. 18 decree from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. All 28 individuals are reported to be employees of the Russian special services. For three years, the individuals will be banned from using their assets held in Ukraine, transferring capital, transporting goods or taking part in privatization auctions, the decree said, according to an unofficial translation.

The United Kingdom-Norway trading agreement went into effect Dec. 1, the Department for International Trade said. Following a joint deal signed by the U.K., Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, the deal slashes tariffs on particular goods such as fish feed and ensures exclusive duty-free quotas for U.K. exporters, the DIT said. Tariff reductions will be seen in the fish processing industries, and on products such as sausages, eggs, pork, poultry, strawberries, potatoes, wheat and carrots. The deal also boosts the U.K.'s financial technology industry, enabling fintech firms to provide new services in Norway without previously providing them elsewhere, the DIT said.