The United Kingdom will establish four new trade and investment hubs in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and northeastern England to bolster its exporting ability, International Trade Secretary Liz Truss detailed in a March 23 news release. These Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast and Darlington hubs will house teams of export and investment specialists to help businesses maximize their export potential and access major trade markets, the release said. The Department for International Trade expects to have 550 staff at these hubs by 2025, with an ultimate goal of 750 by 2030. “I'm determined to use UK trade policy to benefit every part of the UK. These Trade and Investment hubs will help this country to an export and jobs-led recovery,” Truss said in the release. While technically launched in September, the Edinburgh hub will see a large surge in employees following this March 23 relaunch, the release said. The Darlington hub will also be the city's second major Department for International Trade site.

The European Union could remove exceptions to its COVID-19 vaccine export regime, expanding the controls to the rest of the globe, Bloomberg reported a senior EU official as saying. The current EU vaccine export control regime, put in place on Feb. 1, has many large exceptions, including Africa and the Middle East, to make sure that vaccine supply lines are uninterrupted and many poorer countries can receive the shots. However, until orders can be filled that the EU made with vaccine manufacturers, the country exceptions are on the chopping block as are protections to companies such as Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. until they fulfill their contracts, the report said.

The European Union instituted an asset freeze and travel ban on 11 Myanmar officials over their role in the military coup and subsequent police repression against peaceful protesters, the European Council announced in a March 22 news release. Ten of the 11 sanctioned individuals are in the top ranks of the Myanmar armed forces, including Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Soe Win. The lone nonmilitary individual is chairperson of the Union Election Commission for his role in scrapping the country's 2020 election results. The EU is pairing these sanctions with a pledge to withhold financial assistance going to the Myanmar government and to continue intensive diplomatic outreach.

The European Union is likely set to block COVID-19 vaccine shipments to the United Kingdom until vaccine developer AstraZeneca fulfills the terms of its contracts with the bloc, according to a senior EU official, Bloomberg reported. The move would mark an escalation in a battle for inoculations since AstraZeneca informed the bloc that it would not be able to deliver the amount of vaccines it promised for the first quarter, the report said. AstraZeneca is now expected to deliver only half of what it initially committed to by the end or March, promising 30 million shots to the EU.

The United Kingdom's Department for International Trade released a business guidance to exporters of military or dual-use technology on the definitions and scope of the technology in question along with export control concerns. The March 18 publication answers a litany of questions including to whom the export controls apply, the basis of export controls on technology, the definition and scope of the relevant technology, the scope of technology transfer in question, export controls exemptions and the relevant export licenses. The guidance opened broadly, laying out the types of technology covered under the export control regime. Generally, the pertinent technology includes blueprints, plans, diagrams, models, formulae, tables, engineering designs and manuals relating to WMD, certain arms embargoes and unauthorized military exports.

The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation tweaked certain information on two entries that remain subject to an asset freeze under its Iran nuclear sanctions regime, OFSI detailed in a March 15 Financial Sanctions Notice. The entries are for Major General Qasem Soleimani and Step Standart Teknik Parca San Ve Tic A.S. The update scratched other names that both would be known by or referred to, and reformatted the listing in the sanctions regime.

The United Kingdom designated six additional individuals who are now subject to an asset freeze as part of an update to its sanctions regime on Syria for that country's repression of the civilian population, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced in a March 15 Financial Sanctions Notice. The individuals are Muhammad Bara Al-Qatirji, Faisal Al-Miqdad, Luna Al-Shibl, Malik Aliaa, Yasser Hussein Ibrahim and Zaid Salah. They hold prominent positions including in the military, the private sector business world and President Bashar al-Assad's inner circle.

European Union diplomats have agreed to impose new sanctions on 11 individuals and entities for their role in human rights abuses in China, Germany's DW Akademie reported. The new sanctions will include an asset freeze and a travel ban and will apply to individuals and entities from China and other countries. The measures are expected to be formally approved March 22 and will mark the EU's first sanctions against China since a 1989 arms embargo following the Tiananmen Square massacre. Two EU diplomats said that the list includes four Chinese officials and one entity accused of violating the human rights of the Uyghur Muslim minority in China's Xinjiang region, DW reported. Sanctions also will be levied against officials from Russia, Libya, South Sudan and North Korea.

Canada and the United Kingdom will look to ratify their Trade Continuity Agreement by April 1, Canadian International Trade Minister Mary Ng announced in a March 19 press release. Having established a Memorandum of Understanding in December to continue preferential tariff rates through the Brexit process, Canada and the U.K. have decided to ratify the short-term agreement and move on to future negotiations on a more ambitious free trade agreement. The TCA gives Canadian exporters continued preferential access to the U.K. market with 98% of Canadian products receiving tariff-free admission to the Kingdom. According to the corresponding press release from Britain's International Trade Secretary Liz Truss, the agreement ensures the elimination of tariffs on beef, fish, chocolate bars and soft drinks and the eventual zero tariffs on cars. The agreement will save an estimated 42 million GB pounds on tariffs, the release said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for “reciprocity” and “proportionality” in the European Union's COVID-19 vaccine export regime, at a March 17 press conference. To incentivize greater openness in other countries' vaccine exports, von der Leyen placed a special emphasis on reciprocity, detailing how the EU is prioritizing exporting vaccines to countries that create their own vaccines. “We think this is an invitation to be open,” she said. “So that we also see exports from those countries coming back to the European Union.”