Belarusian carriers will no longer be allowed to fly through European Union airspace nor access EU airports, in response to the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk on May 23, the European Council announced in a June 4 news release. The move marks an escalation of existing council condemnations on Belarus over the arrest and detention by Belarusian authorities of journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega.

The United Kingdom's Trade Secretary Liz Truss is seeking the removal of a 5% tariff on whisky exports to Australia in trade agreement negotiations, Truss announced in a June 3 news release. Both sides are seeking a final agreement by mid-month, British High Commissioner to Australia Vicki Treadell told reporters in Canberra, Reuters reported. “We are working hard to have an agreement in principle at the bilateral between Prime Ministers Johnson and Morrison on June 15,” she said. According to the release, Australia is the eighth-biggest market for Scotch whisky, worth around 113 million British pounds in 2020. Truss also said that a trade pact between Australia and the U.K. would be an “important gateway” for accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, of which Australia is a member. The CPTPP bloc recently agreed to begin negotiations on the U.K.'s membership in the group (see 2106020006).

The European Commission in a May 27 opinion clarified two questions on national competent authorities (NCAs) requirements regarding assets frozen under various sanctions. One question asked whether it's legal under the EU's Libyan sanctions to liquidate an EU investment fund compartment that holds a listed entity's shares if the proceeds are then immediately frozen in a segregated EU bank account. The second involves whether it is possible under the Syrian sanctions to transfer a frozen bank account from an EU-based branch to the United Kingdom parent bank. In answering both, the commission focused on ensuring no one could use the assets.

The European Union ambassadors to the European Council agreed to the terms of a mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament to create an International Procurement Instrument, the council announced in a June 2 news release. The IPI will work to open third countries' procurement markets and “ensure access and a level playing field to EU businesses in those markets.” The IPI would allow the EU to block access to its public procurement markets case by case without affecting existing EU commitments via the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement and free trade agreements.

The European Commission in a May 31 notice announced the impending expiration of antidumping duty measures on certain heavy plate of non-alloy or other alloy steel from China unless a review of the duties is initiated. Without this review started by EU producers of the product, the measures will expire March 1, 2022. The EU manufacturers can submit a written request for a review up to three months before the duty's expiration date.

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership's 11 members accepted the United Kingdom's bid to join the trade pact, British Trade Minister Liz Truss announced in a June 2 news release. The U.K. will work closely with Japan, the current chair of the CPTPP commission, to get accession negotiations rolling, the release said. “CPTPP membership is a huge opportunity for Britain,” Truss said. “It will help shift our economic centre of gravity away from Europe towards faster-growing parts of the world, and deepen our access to massive consumer markets in the Asia-Pacific. We would get all the benefits of joining a high-standards free trade area, but without having to cede control of our borders, money or laws.” Great Britain formally applied to join Feb. 1, and its accession would mark the CPTPP's first foray beyond the Pacific Ocean (see 2102010025).

The European Commission in a May 31 notice announced the impending expiration of antidumping duty measures on high tenacity yarn of polyesters from China unless a review of the duties is initiated. Without this review started by EU producers of the product, the measures will expire Feb. 26, 2022. The EU manufacturers can submit a written request for a review up to three months before the duty's expiration date.

The European Commission initiated an investigation into the alleged circumvention of the countervailing duty measures on imports of certain woven and/or stitched glass fiber fabrics originating in China and Egypt but consigned from Morocco, “whether declared as originating in Morocco or not,” the commission said in a May 31 notice. Under review for circumvention are “fabrics of woven, and/or stitched continuous filament glass fibre rovings and/or yarns with or without other elements, excluding products which are impregnated or preimpregnated (pre-preg), and excluding open mesh fabrics with cells with a size of more than 1,8 mm in both length and width and weighing more than 35 g/m.” Interested parties may make written submissions via TRON.tdi within 37 days from the date of the publication notice.

United Kingdom International Trade Secretary Liz Truss will call for the modernization of the WTO at G7 Trade Ministerial meeting on May 27-28, her office said in a May 26 news release. Truss will urge a “fully-functioning dispute settlement system, to tackle unfair subsidies in industry and agriculture, to modernize the WTO rulebook and advance digital and green trade.” In addition, Truss will share her backing for an agreement on industrial subsidies and the need to support the new Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The United Kingdom released an update relating to substantial changes made to two open general export licenses for information security items, the Department for International Trade said in a May 26 guidance. The two OGELS were amended to include China, Hong Kong and Macao as permitted destinations, however the additions have been balanced by a reduction of the list of permitted items. All items specified in Schedule 1 of the new OGEL for information security items must only use “standard encryption algorithms that have been approved or adopted by recognized international standards bodies (examples: 3GPP, ETSI, GSMA, IEEE, IETF, ISO, ITU, TIA),” and “any cryptographic functionality used by the item cannot be easily changed by the user.” Any potential exporter of these goods must register through the UK's SPIRE portal, the export control joint unit's electronic licensing system.