The Rotterdam District Court on Oct. 31 sentenced an unnamed Russian businessman to an 18-month prison term for violating the EU's Russia sanctions, according to an unofficial translation. The charges against the man include selling dual-use goods, including a "certain type of integrated circuit" and drones to Russian companies, along with selling, delivering, transferring and exporting nine other integrated circuit types to the same unnamed Russian companies.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she discussed the next steps for negotiations on the global arrangement on steel and aluminum with her EU counterpart, Valdis Dombrovskis, and said she updated France's Foreign Trade Minister Olivier Becht on the negotiations. Her Oct. 28 readout of the meeting with Becht said she "noted the importance of both sides continuing to work together in a productive manner over the next several months. She reiterated the United States’ commitment to remain at the negotiating table in order to reach a meaningful outcome."

The EU is working on a proposal to use "windfall profits" from its Russian sanctions regime in an aid package for Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced Oct. 27. The proposal would pool the assets, which currently are "benefitting a limited number of financial institutions in the" EU, and channel them via the EU budget "en bloc" for Ukraine's reconstruction.

The U.K. corrected one entry under its Iran (nuclear) sanctions regime, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced. The listing for Farasakht Industries was updated with the company's address details.

The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on Oct. 27 updated its general Russian sanctions license permitting payments to sanctioned telecommunication and news media service firms. The update clarifies that PJSC MegaFon and its subsidiaries and Digital Invest Limited Liability Co. are sanctioned civilian telecommunication companies, while also extending the license until May 30, 2026.

The EU for the first time released a compilation of member states' national export control lists, allowing member state nations to "impose authorisation requirements on exports of items included in other Member States’ control lists, as long as these are included in the Commission’s own compilation," the commission's Directorate-General for Trade announced. The first list is made up of Dutch controls on semiconductor manufacturing equipment as well as Spanish controls on quantum computing technology, additive manufacturing and other emerging technologies, the commission said. The EU will update the list as member states report new or amended export control measures.

The U.K. High Court on Oct. 26 rejected an application from Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman to overturn the U.K.'s decision to refuse three licenses for payments related to the businessman's property and his management company. The court said the U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation legally concluded that a license may not be granted if the payment is made "directly" or "indirectly" to another designated individual or entity.

The U.K. and Oklahoma held the first working group meeting under the U.K.-Oklahoma trade relations Memorandum of Understanding in Oklahoma City. The Oct. 24 meeting focused on "identifying new opportunities for increasing bilateral trade in clean energy technologies, zero-emissions vehicles, agriculture, and public sector procurement," the U.K.'s Department for International Trade said. The participants also identified areas for future work, including carbon sequestration, electric vehicle infrastructure, agriculture and government procurement.

A group of European countries not in the EU aligned with two sanctions moves from the EU on Iran and one under the bloc's regime against the proliferation and use of chemical weapons, the European Council announced Oct. 26.

The European Parliament's Environment Committee this week passed a sustainable pesticides regulation that could set new limits on imported agricultural goods and food products, along with other pesticide-related bans. The measures, approved 47-37, with 2 abstentions, would require the European Commission to “examine the differences in the use of pesticides” on imported agricultural and agri-food products by 2025 and potentially propose measures to “ensure imports meet EU-equivalent standards,” the European Parliament said in a news release. It also would prohibit exports of pesticides not approved in the EU.