The Council of the European Union on May 13 reached an agreement that it said would improve the collection of value-added taxes "by making suppliers liable for the VAT paid on imports." The change will "likely" encourage foreign traders or platforms to use the "VAT import one-stop-shop," which is the EU's point of contact for importers of goods from third countries into the EU.

The EU has agreed to a 17th package of sanctions against Russia, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said May 14 on social media. The package includes more restrictions on Russian access to "battlefield technology" and the designations of 189 so-called shadow fleet vessels helping Russia move energy exports, she said. "This war has to end," von der Leyen said. "We will keep the pressure high on the Kremlin." The EU didn't immediately release more information about the measures, which are expected to be formally released in the coming days.

The European Commission opened a public consultation regarding a list of U.S. imports that could become subject to tariffs in response to the flurry of U.S. trade action, should talks with the White House fall through, the commission announced. The list covers over $107 billion worth of U.S. imports, including a "broad range of industrial and agricultural products," it said.

Several European think tanks this week launched a new project with an interactive dashboard of graphics and analyses to help industry and governments better monitor the economic and trade relationship between China and Russia. The dashboard includes regularly updated charts and information about key trade between the two countries, including in fossil fuels, dual-use goods and machine tools. The project was created by the Centre for Eastern Studies, the Mercator Institute for China Studies, and the Swedish Institute of International Affairs' Swedish National China Centre and Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies.

The EU should take lessons learned from the “effectively dormant” U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (see 2503280039) and translate those into a new strategy for coordinating export controls and other trade issues with allies, the Paris-based Institut Montaigne think tank said in a report released this month.

The EU and the U.K. should strengthen trade and security ties in response to rising geopolitical tensions and threats posed by Russia, top European Parliament members said ahead of the first EU-U.K. summit May 19.

The U.K. has finished gathering public input from industry about the Trump administration’s recent tariff measures (see 2504030057) and is working to “rapidly” analyze the responses “while keeping all options on the table,” the country’s Department for Business and Trade said May 2. It also said possible trade negotiations with the U.S. to remove the tariffs “continue at pace and remain our focus.” The U.K. earlier this year published a list of over 8,000 goods imported from the U.S. that possibly could be hit with retaliatory tariffs.

EU and Lithuanian authorities last month raided a logistics business suspected of illegally exporting items to Russia and Belarus, seizing more than $1.7 million worth of goods from the company. The items allegedly were made in EU countries before the company rerouted them through Central Asian countries to circumvent EU sanctions, the European Anti-Fraud Office and the Lithuanian Customs Criminal Service said.

The EU and Canada on May 14 will hold a virtual "debrief" to industry members after the two sides' seventh annual meeting of their regulatory cooperation forum earlier that day. Registration for the debrief closes May 5. The forum was created under the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement to help the two sides better harmonize trade regulations.

The U.K. this week published a plan to reform its system for streamlining imports of goods that benefit from duty-free entry because they’re being imported temporarily, part of a broader package of tax updates released by the country’s revenue and customs agency. The changes will help businesses that import goods for short-term projects, exhibitions or events, the agency said, and “reflect the government’s commitment to a modern customs regime which supports businesses and responds to global trade and complex supply chains.” It’s also expecting the updates to “improve the customer experience for businesses engaging with customs.”