Hong Kong and Ukraine formally accepted the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, becoming the 15th and 16th parties to do so, the WTO announced. The deal would impose rules to crack down on subsidies for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. The announcement by Hong Kong and Ukraine means nearly 40% of member states have ratified the deal, which requires acceptance by two-thirds of WTO members to enter into force.
The U.K. High Court of Justice's Administrative Court on Aug. 18 rejected a sanctions designation appeal by Eugene Shvidler, an associate of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and a director of mining giant Evraz. The court ruled the designation was "proportionate" and not "discriminatory."
Conservation groups Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity took to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to ask the Department of Energy to reverse its approval of exports to be shipped from the Alaska liquefied natural gas project. The decision, which approves LNG shipments from Alaska's North Slope to Asia, failed to fully assess the project's "climate and environmental harms," the center said in a press release.
Colombian conglomerate Grupo Aval and its subsidiary Corporacion Financiera Colombiana (Corficolombiana) will pay more than $60 million to settle allegations that the firms violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the SEC and DOJ announced last week. The government alleged Corficolombiana bribed Colombian government officials to win a contract for a 328-mile highway infrastructure project in the South American nation.
Hong Kong-based apparel company Chagji Esquel Textile (CJE) and the Commerce Department filed a joint stipulation of dismissal on Aug. 11 in CJE's suit challenging its placement on the Entity List. The parties most recently filed a joint status report in June as they discussed the conditions related to the End-User Review Committee's July 2021 decision to drop the company from the Entity List (Changji Esquel Textile Co. v. Gina M. Raimondo, D.D.C. # 21-01798).
China's Ministry of Commerce on Aug. 11 released a report covering "WTO Compliance of the United States." The report says China is concerned about U.S. policies and how they affect the World Trade Organization's rules-based trading system. A spokesperson for the ministry said China is using the report to call on the U.S. to abide by its commitments to the trade body, according to an unofficial translation.
The World Trade Organization released panel reports covering two disputes between the U.S. and India after both countries came to a mutual solution. The countries in July told the Dispute Settlement Body they reached a solution in the disputes, including one disagreement over U.S. tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum and another involving India's imposition of additional duties on certain goods from the U.S. The mutually agreed solution came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the White House in June and was announced in conjunction with the resolution of other spats between the nations at the WTO (see 2307190064).
The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation in a pair of Aug. 8 notices added 19 entries to its Russia sanctions regime and six entries to its Belarus restrictions regime. The Russia sanctions additions include 10 people and nine entities, most relating to Iran's support for the Russian military's war in Ukraine. Many of the people designated were employees or executives at one of the listed companies, Paravar Pars Co., an aerospace research and engineering firm in Iran.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York set a plea proceeding for former FBI agent Charles McGonigal in a case charging him with violating U.S. sanctions on Russia. Judge Jennifer Rearden set the Aug. 15 proceeding on word that McGonigal "may wish to enter" a guilty plea (U.S. v. Charles McGonigal, S.D.N.Y. # 23-00016).
A former oil and commodities trader at Vitol Inc., Javier Aguilar Morales, was charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by bribing Mexican officials to obtain and retain business for Vitol. According to the indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on Aug. 3, Aguilar violated the FCPA via bribery and money laundering from 2017 to 2020 to keep business for Vitol with the Mexican state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), and its subsidiary, PEMEX Procurement International (United States v. Javier Aguilar, S.D. Tex. #4:23-00335).