On 26 December 2023, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced new sanctions measures under the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law against the following parties for their involvement in the imposition of US restrictive measures on Chinese entities over their links to alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region: The sanctioned parties are prohibited from entering China (including mainland and the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative regions). In addition, all properties (including movable and…
Introduction During September 2023, the US, UK, and EU, and Japan, updated their Common High Priority Items Lists (“the List(s)”), with seven new Harmonized System (“HS”) codes. These coordinated Lists are composed of items identified as critical to Russia’s war effort, weapons systems and military development. The Lists highlight to businesses that there is a particularly high risk these sanctioned items may be the target of sanctions circumvention and possible diversion to Russia. Companies can…
On 20 July 2023, HM Government published its annual report on the UK strategic export controls (the “Annual Report”) for the reporting period January to December 2022, a day after its presentation to Parliament. The Annual Report provides a summary on the UK export controls and licensing regime, and reports on key statistics for the reporting period. Below, we have summarised some key takeaways. Standard Individual Export Licences In 2022, the ECJU processed 17,204 Standard…
In addition to the new EU measures, on Thursday 8th June the UK announced additional sanctions against Belarus, which came into force on Friday 9th June. The press release announcing the restrictions is available here, and the amending legislation is here. The new restrictions are intended to restrict sources of revenue to Belarus, combat sanctions circumvention, and reduce the ability of Belarusian media organisations to spread propaganda in the UK. The key measures include: Many…