The European Council on Jan. 29 added four people and one entity to its global human rights sanctions regime and renewed its Russia-related sanctions regime for another six months.
DOJ likely will continue expanding its cooperation with foreign governments in investigating and prosecuting Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, Miller & Chevalier lawyer John Davis said in an interview. After a year that saw DOJ cooperate with South Africa and Colombia for the first time, Davis said, the agency will seek to work with more Latin American and European nations on FCPA enforcement.
Cape Verde formally accepted the agreement on fisheries subsidies Jan. 26, the World Trade Organization announced. Fifty-six members have now accepted the deal, which is just over half the number needed to make a two-thirds majority for ratification.
The European Council on Jan. 26 adopted a negotiating mandate on the proposed regulation barring goods made with forced labor from the EU market, the council announced. The mandate included a host of changes to the regulation, including a clarification that the measure's scope would include "products offered for distance sales," the creation of a single forced labor portal and a stronger role for the European Commission in investigating the use of forced labor.
The U.K. halted talks on a free trade agreement with Canada, according to a post on the social media platform X by the British High Commissioner to Canada Susannah Goshko. A statement posted by Goshko, attributed to a U.K. spokesperson, said the British government reserves "the right to pause negotiations with any country if progress is not being made." The U.K. said it remains open to resuming talks "in the future to build a stronger trading relationship that benefits businesses and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic."
The U.S. will make a statement in the dispute on the U.S. origin marking requirements for goods from Hong Kong during the World Trade Organization's Jan. 26 dispute settlement body meeting, the WTO said. A dispute panel ruled against the U.S. national security defense of its trade measure requiring goods from Hong Kong to be labeled as being made in China (see 2212220029).
Rimon Law added two partners and one associate to its international trade practice, the firm said. The new partners are James Min, former global chair of international trade law for the DHL Group and Mi-Yong Kim, former partner at LimNexus. The firm also added Chelsea Ellis, former LimNexus associate, as an associate. Rimon also announced the launch of its export controls and economic sanctions practice. Ellis, Kim and Min join partner Daanish Hamid in that practice. Sandra Bell, former deputy assistant commissioner at CBP's Office of International Trade, also recently joined the firm (see 2401120064).
Expect new EU action at the World Trade Organization in 2024, four Akin attorneys said in a Jan. 23 blog poost. With the exceptions of 2023 and 2007, the EU has filed at least one complaint every year since 1995, and is expected to "go back on the offensive" by starting at least one or two WTO spats this year, the attorneys said.
Chloe Cina, former head of global sanctions advisory at Deutsche Bank, joined Morrison Foerster as a partner in the national security group based in London, the firm announced. Cina joined Deutsche Bank in 2018 as director of the global sanctions and embargoes team prior to heading up the global sanctions advisory office.
The Netherlands' Rotterdam District Court on Jan. 15 sustained the Dutch National Bank's sanctions on an unnamed financial services provider, according to an unofficial translation. The court held that the bank "rightly" found that from July 2015 to March 2018, the financial services provider "systematically failed to comply with several core obligations" by "hardly conducting any customer due diligence" and failing to carry out any sanctions screening.