The European Commission on June 10 opened a foreign subsidies investigation on the Emirates Telecommunications Group Company's (e&'s) sole control of PPF Telecom Group B.V., "excluding its Czech business." The commission said that it has "preliminary concerns" that e&, a state-controlled telecommunications firm, "may have been granted foreign subsidies that could distort the EU internal market." The investigation was opened under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation and will look at "actual or potential negative effects on the acquisition process" and whether the foreign subsidies "lead to actual or potential negative effects in the internal market."

Ukraine recently announced a zero export quota for sugar to the EU for the rest of the year after meeting the 262,000 metric ton export quota set by the EU for the year, USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report last week. Ukraine established the “self-limiting trade measure,” which took effect June 1, to “create long term trust” with the EU, USDA said. “This quota is intended to block sugar exports to the EU, while exports to other destinations will remain unaffected.”

The U.K. recently amended a general license under its Russia sanctions regime to allow a "scheme of arrangement prepared" by the administrators of sanctioned Russian bank VTB Capital. The license generally permits the bank to pay for its "basic needs," which include the payment of insurance premiums, reasonable fees, property management services, employee pensions, taxes and rent or mortgage payments. The license expires at the end of the day April 3, 2030.

Even if the EU decides against imposing higher tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in its ongoing countervailing duty probe (see 2310040012 and 2403150047), the bloc is likely to levy some sort of increased tariffs on Chinese EVs “in the future,” Taylor Wessing said in a June 3 client alert. The law firms said “observers believe” that the EU could raise those duties from the current 10-15% rate to about 30%.

The EU General Court on May 29 dismissed a suit from Belarusian Airlines AAT challenging the validity of its 2021 sanctions designation.

The EU General Court on May 29 annulled the European Council's sanctions designation of Russian businessperson Farkhad Akhmedov, founder of Russian gas equipment supplier Tansley Trading and minority shareholder of Northgas. The court said that the council "made an error of assessment" in sanctioning Akhmedov "by considering that the applicant was a leading businessperson involved in economic sectors which provided a substantial source of revenue to" the Russian government.

The Council of the European Union on May 30 adopted new anti-money laundering rules, which "exhaustively harmonises anti-money laundering rules for the first time throughout the EU." The rules are extended to new entities, including "most of the crypto-sector, traders of luxury goods and football clubs and agents."

The Council of the European Union on May 30 approved a regulation that will impose tariffs on cereals, oilseeds and derived products from Russia and Belarus, with the goal of halting all imports of these goods into the EU. The duties also applied to beet-pulp pellets and dried peas from Russia and Belarus, which currently enter the bloc duty-free. The duties will enter into force July 1.

The Council of the European Union on May 30 cleared the way for the EU-Kenya Economic Partnership Agreement to enter into force, the council announced. It will take effect on the first day of the second month after the date on which the countries have told each other they have completed their internal procedures.

The EU and Australia on May 28 signed a memorandum of understanding for a "bilateral partnership" on sustainable critical and strategic minerals, the European Commission announced. The deal calls for cooperation in three areas: integration of "sustainable raw materials value chains," cooperation on research "along the raw materials value chains," and cooperation to boost greater environmental, social and governance practices. The two sides will develop a road map with "concrete actions" over the next six months to implement the MOU, the commission said.