The European Parliament on April 3 voted 531-69, with 17 abstentions, to postpone the effective date of new EU-wide supply chain due diligence rules for certain companies (see 2405240031). If formally approved by the European Council, the reporting rules would be postponed by one year for companies with over 5,000 employees and annual turnover of $1.6 billion, along with “non-EU companies with a turnover above this threshold in the EU.” Parliament said this means member states would have an extra year -- until July 26, 2027 -- to transpose the rules into their national legislation, and the companies “will only have to apply the rules from 2028.”

The European Commission hasn't been officially informed by the Bureau of Industry and Security about the agency's plans to pull back from export control talks at the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council, a commission spokesperson said this week.

The EU on March 31 launched the application process for authorized “declarants” under its upcoming carbon border adjustment mechnaism, which will allow importers and customs representatives to import CBAM goods when the rules take effect in January 2026 (see 2502060060). The European Commission also published new guidance and videos to help companies apply.

The U.K. last week released its latest six-monthly report on Hong Kong, outlining events in the region from July 1 to Dec. 31, including certain events that the U.K. said raise human rights and business concerns. It said certain rights and freedoms in Hong Kong "continued to be negatively impacted by the broad application of" Hong Kong's national security law, the 2020 legislation that made illegal a range of dissenting and anti-government acts. The U.K. said Hong Kong authorities arrested several people during that time frame for calling for Hong Kong’s independence "and for foreign sanctions against China and Hong Kong, criticising them for 'betraying' China and 'neglecting' the interests of Hong Kong."

The U.K. said it generally won’t penalize an organization for using a “suspense account” to temporarily record sanctioned assets, the country’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said in new frequently asked question 145 published this week.

The EU is growing increasingly concerned about Beijing's use of export controls and trade remedies as retaliatory tools against other nations, a senior European Commission official said this week.

The European Commission on March 25 lowered the liberalization rate for its steel safeguard measure from 1% to 0.1%, reducing the amount of steel that can be imported into the EU without tariffs.

New guidance published this week by the European Commission covers how EU sanctions apply to certain shipments of Russian liquified natural gas. The FAQs offer insight into how EU companies can determine whether the LNG they’re transporting is of Russian origin, how they can request permission to transport those shipments, and more.

The EU this week launched a new online sanctions help desk, featuring information on new sanctions, country-specific guidance, events, tips, compliance lessons learned and more. The help desk is geared toward helping small and medium-size companies carry out due diligence, and it will provide guidance on both EU and U.N. sanctions.

The European Commission on March 24 began monitoring import volumes of ethylene and ammonia products, which are primarily used for fertilizer production and "industrial applications," in order to levy duties on the products should imports surge in the EU. The commission said it began the surveillance because of "evidence of a significant and potentially injurious increase in the EU market share of imports of the chemicals," which purportedly is the result of overcapacity in China and trade defense measures from a "growing number of countries." Specifically, the surveillance covers "imports of copolymers of ethylene and alpha olefin, urea containing more than 45% (by weight) of nitrogen and ammonium sulphate," and will be in place for three years.