The EU this week put in place humanitarian exemptions for 10 of its sanctions regimes to authorize certain transactions related to aid and “basic human needs,” the European Council said. The exemptions, which implement the U.N. Security Council’s humanitarian carve-out that the body approved last year (see 2212120054), cover EU’s sanctions regime for cyberattacks as well as its regimes for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Guinea, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Tunisia, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

The U.K.'s Department for International Trade on Nov. 21 updated its strategic export controls guidance. The guidance includes information on the country's export control lists, how its export controls are applied and how exporters can apply for a license, penalties and fines.

The European Parliament and the European Council last week reached an agreement on a new set of rules to restrict waste exports, the parliament announced. The agreement, which still needs to be formally approved, seeks to block exports of certain non-hazardous wastes and mixtures to countries outside of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development unless those nations meet “strict” environmental conditions and agree to treat the waste “in an environmentally sound manner,” the parliament said in a news release.

The U.K. High Court in a decision released Nov. 15 said Senegalese oil trading company Der Mond Oil and Gas couldn't rely on sanctions as a reason for not paying Russian company Litasco SA for money due under an oil sale contract.

The U.K. this week amended Russia- and Iran-related sanctions entries. The changes were to identifying information for Irina Anatolievna Kostenko under its Russia sanctions regime and to the Ya Mahdi Industries Group under Iran.

European countries not in the EU aligned with two recent sanctions moves from the European Council concerning the situations in Myanmar and Guinea, the council announced.

Members of the European Parliament are pushing member states to more strictly enforce sanctions against Russia, saying “loopholes” are still allowing Russia to reap revenue from its oil sales and import export-controlled electronics. In a resolution adopted by the parliament last week, the body called for a lower price cap on Russian oil and petroleum products and a new mechanism to oversee member states’ sanctions enforcement.

The U.K. and Florida signed the seventh UK-U.S. state-level Memorandum of Understanding on Nov. 14, the Department for International Trade announced. U.K. Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the deal, which is "targeted at high-potential sectors such as space and fintech and designed to boost exports and investment between the UK and Florida." Florida joins Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah and Washington as the U.S. states that have an MOU with the U.K.

The European Council on Nov. 13 renewed its sanctions on Venezuela for another six months, setting them up to now expire on May 14, 2024. The sanctions include an embargo on arms and equipment for internal repression along with an asset freeze on 54 people.

The European Commission is proposing an update to its intermodal freight regulations that it hopes will make EU freight movement more efficient, competitive and climate-friendly. The proposal, released last week, would update the EU’s current Combined Transport Directive -- an “outdated” freight transportation regulation last amended in 1992 -- by incentivizing the use of “intermodal operations that contribute the most to making freight transport more sustainable,” the commission said.