The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation fined the Russian subsidiary of British law firm Herbert Smith Freehills about $600,000 for violating U.K. sanctions on Russia. The firm was penalized for six payments it made worth over $5 million to sanctioned Russian banks Alfa-Bank JSC, PJSC Sovcombank and PJSC Sberbank.

The European Commission on March 19 imposed definitive antidumping duties on glass fiber yarns from China after finding that "significant Chinese overcapacity" of the yarn injured the EU industry. The duties range from 26.3% to 56.1%.

The EU plans to update its export controls to make them more effective amid rapid geopolitical and technological change, a government official said March 19.

Imports into the EU of birch and other types of plywood have proven to be a “major source of revenue” for Russia and Belarus and are frequently being used to evade EU sanctions, the European Commission said in a sanctions alert last week.

The European Commission issued updated guidance last week to clarify the exemptions for the temporary storage of Russian crude oil and petroleum products in EU free trade zones.

The European Commission imposed countervailing duties on aluminum road wheels from Morocco on March 14, setting duties of 5.6% on exporters "benefitting purely from the Moroccan subsidies" and 31.4% on exporters "benefitting from both Moroccan and Chinese [Belt and Road Initiative] financial contributions." The commission said its CVD investigation found that the Moroccan government was providing subsidies to its automotive industry through "grants, loans at preferential rates, and tax exemptions/reductions" that are incompatible with World Trade Organization rules. In addition, the investigation revealed that China made "direct cross-border financial contributions" to one of the two Moroccan exporters in the industry.

The U.K. on March 13 revoked the antidumping duty order on chamois leather from China after the Trade Remedies Authority conducted a transition review of the order and found that there were no U.K. producers of the subject merchandise in the period of investigation. The duties were revoked for goods falling under U.K. global tariff commodity codes 4114.10.10.00 and 4114.10.90.00.

Denmark is considering new legislation that could punish EU sanctions violators by sentencing them to up to eight years in prison, an uptick from the current maximum four-month sentence, the country’s Ministry of Justice said this week. And if there are "aggravating circumstances," the ministry said, certain offenders could face up to eight years, according to an unofficial translation.

The EU General Court last week rejected Russian oligarch Alexander Ponomarenko's application to annul his sanctions listing after he argued the European Council violated his procedural rights, committed "manifest errors of assessment" and violated principles of fundamental law.

EU government enforcement agencies should better cooperate on sanctions and export control investigations, including by regularly sharing information during periodic meetings, according to a recent report from Kleptotrace, a research project co-founded by the EU.