World Trade Organization members mulled over five regional trade agreements at the Nov. 14 meeting of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements, the WTO said. The agreements are between South Korea and Turkey, for services, and between Kenya and the U.K., the U.K. and Israel, the U.K. and Egypt, and the U.K. and Mexico, for goods.

Russia is set to abide by a new deal, brokered by the U.N., allowing Ukrainian grain and other farm products to be exported via the Black Sea, Bloomberg reported Nov. 15. Russia will let the deal renew after it expires Nov. 19, individuals familiar with the situation told Bloomberg, though they didn't specify whether Russia would look to add new conditions in return for the extension. Turkey and the U.N. brokered the original 120-day deal allowing Ukraine to resume its seaborne exports from its ports after Russia's invasion. The new accord would enact a 120-day extension unless one of the parties pulls out or modifies it, Bloomberg said. The U.N. said it will help ensure unimpeded exports of Russian food and fertilizers.

Russia agreed to continue the deal permitting the safe passage of Ukrainian grain and crop exports, swiftly backing out of its decision to halt the agreement after Turkey and the U.N. carried out shipments over Russia's objections, Bloomberg reported Nov. 2. Russia pulled out of the grain deal Oct. 29, issuing a warning over the safety of ships transporting Ukrainian grain. "Moscow's leverage appeared limited" after shipments continued this week, Bloomberg said. Russia's Defense Ministry said it decided to continue the deal after receiving guarantees from Ukraine the safe-passage corridor would remain unused for military purposes.

World Trade Organization members are lagging in submitting required subsidy notifications, the chair of the WTO ComEighty-nine members still have yet to submit their 2021 subsidy notifications by the mid-2021 deadline, Kerrlene Wills of Guyana, the committee chair, said. Another 76 members have not yet submitted their 2019 subsidy notifications, and 65 have not submitted their 2017 notifications.

World Trade Organization members at the Oct. 24 meeting of the Committee on Safeguards reviewed 19 safeguard investigations taken by other members, the WTO said. Despite the dip in the number of new investigations and applications for new safeguards, WTO members took issue with "the way this instrument was used." China, Japan and Australia expressed concerns about the "timeliness of notifications, the effect of existing safeguard measures on trade, and the numerous extensions of measures," the WTO said.

The State Department announced penalties on one person and three entities and their subsidiaries for illegal transfers under the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act. The agency in a notice said the parties transferred items subject to multilateral control lists that contribute to weapons proliferation or missile production. The State Department barred them from making certain purchases of items controlled on the U.S. Munitions List and by the Arms Export Control Act and will suspend any current export licenses used by the entities. The agency also will bar them from receiving new export licenses for any goods subject to the Export Administration Regulations. The restrictions will remain in place for two years from the Oct. 3 effective date.

Turkey recently imposed an export ban on milk powder, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service said, the latest in a series of measures this year to restrict agricultural products leaving the market in order to stabilize domestic prices amid inflation. The export ban applies to milk powders both with fat and skimmed milk, the agency said, and runs from mid-September through the end of the year. The country previously banned and then lifted export restrictions on butter and olive oil (see 2207210009).

Oracle Corporation will pay more than $23 million to settle charges it violated parts of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when its Turkish, Emirati and Indian subsidiaries used slush funds to bribe foreign officials for business from 2016 to 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced. The company agreed to pay around $8 million in disgorgement and a $15 million penalty, along with agreeing to "cease and desist" from violating the anti-bribery, books and records and internal accounting controls elements of the FCPA, SEC said. Oracle did so without admitting or denying the SEC findings.

With the price cap on Russian oil products set to take effect in December, trade and commodity experts expressed concern during a Sept. 9 panel at Brookings Institution. In his announcement of the measures, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the aim of the price cap is to limit profits from Russian oil sales and cut into revenue generated for Russia but in a way that won't cut into the overall availability of oil products. The cap will work by targeting services supporting ocean shipping, such as insurance and brokers.

Russian sanctions and export control evasion attempts are still ongoing. Companies need to remain vigilant across a wide range of areas to minimize their risk of enabling evasion, experts said during a Sept. 1 webinar discussion hosted by the Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists (ACSS).