Latest Posts
Search for:
Author

Sunny Mann

Browsing

Further updates to EU and UK sanctions against Belarus

By 1 Min Read

The European Council has designated 40 individuals under its Belarus sanctions regime, amending Council Regulation (EC) 765/2006. In the UK, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has accordingly updated the consolidated list. 5 of these individuals were already sanctioned under the UK’s Global Human Rights regime and are now subject to an asset freeze under both the UK and EU regimes. OFSI has also updated information for a further 4 individuals under the UK regime, bringing the…

UK – OFSI publishes Annual Review 2019-2020 and issues reminder to report frozen assets

By 2 Mins Read

On 9 October 2020, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) published its Annual Review, providing an overview of OFSI’s activities in the financial year April 2019 to March 2020. A copy of the Annual Review is available here. In addition, OFSI has reminded UK businesses that they must report any frozen assets they hold by 16 October 2020. Statistics In 2019-2020, OFSI received 140 reports of potential financial sanctions breaches, an increase from 99 previously. The…

UK updates unilateral sanctions targeting Belarus officials

By 2 Mins Read

On 29 September 2020, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced that 8 Belarusian officials, including Alexander Lukashenko, his son Victor, and other senior Belarusian government officials, have been subjected to sanctions (asset freezes and travel bans) under the UK’s autonomous Global Human Rights sanctions regime. This regime was introduced earlier in 2020 as a “Magnitsky-style” regime, and is the first autonomous sanctions regime adopted by the UK following its departure from the EU. For…

EU announces sanctions on Belarus

By and 1 Min Read

On 19 August 2020, members of the European Council held a video conference to discuss the situation in Belarus following the presidential election on 9 August 2020. The President of the European Council stated that the elections in Belarus were “neither free nor fair”, did not meet international standards and that the EU did not recognize the results. It was announced that the EU would shortly impose sanctions on a substantial number of individuals responsible…

EU agrees to restrict sensitive exports to Hong Kong

By and 1 Min Read

On 28 July 2020, the EU agreed to impose EU-wide measures to restrict the export of certain items to Hong Kong. The EU Council’s press release can be found here. These restricted goods include equipment or technology that could be used for internal repression, interception of internal communications or cyber surveillance. Like recent US and UK measures, the new EU export controls have been proposed in response to the recent HK National Security Law. Germany has…

UK to resume granting licences for the export of military equipment to Saudi Arabia

By and 2 Mins Read

On 7 July 2020 the Secretary of State for International Trade informed Parliament in a written statement that she has retaken her decisions regarding licences for military exports to Saudi Arabia for possible use in the conflict in Yemen, in accordance with the Judgment of the Court of Appeal of 20 June 2019. The Court of Appeal last year ruled that the government had erred in law in its decision-making processes on arms export licences to Saudi…

UK imposes first Human Rights Sanctions

By 2 Mins Read

On Monday 6 July 2020, the UK introduced the first sanctions under its new Global Human Rights sanctions regime, targeting 47 individuals and 2 entities. The regulations setting out the sanctions are made under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (the “Sanctions Act“) and impose asset freezes and travel bans on individuals and entities responsible for or involved in serious violations of human rights. The Sanctions Act was introduced to allow the UK to…

EU – COVID-19: European Commission (“EC”) lifts export authorisation requirements on personal protective equipment (“PPE”)

By 1 Min Read

The EC announced on 26 May that the export authorisation scheme for PPE ceased to apply as of Tuesday, 26 May 2020. The EC has decided not to extend the measure, initially introduced on 15 March to ensure adequacy of supply of such products in the EU in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. This measure was initially extended for another month on 26 April, implementing additional reporting requirements and limiting the scope of the scheme to face masks.…

2014 EU Anti-Bribery, Trade and Customs Webinar Series

By , , , , and 3 Mins Read

Our EU Compliance, International Trade and Customs Groups are bringing together their considerable local knowledge and on the ground experience to deliver their third webinar series. This year’s series will cover a range of customs, export control, trade sanctions and anti-bribery and corruption topics. Our first webinar will be on Thursday 27 February 2014 on the topic of “Union Customs Code: What to expect from the draft Implementing Provisions and how to take part in…

EU Anti-Bribery, Trade and Customs Webinar Series 2013

By , , , and 2 Mins Read

Our EU Compliance, International Trade and Customs Groups are bringing together their considerable local knowledge and on the ground experience to deliver their second webinar series. This year’s series will cover a range of customs, export control, trade sanctions and anti-bribery and corruption topics. All webinars will begin at 16:00 GMT on each of the dates listed below and are scheduled to run for 90 minutes. Our panel of speakers will provide a practical overview…