The U.K.'s Licensing for International Trade (LITE) system will be unavailable starting the morning of Oct. 27 for "essential maintenance," the country's Department for Business & Trade said in an email to users this week. "Exporters will not be able to access the system during this time," the agency said. "We hope to resume the service as soon as possible."

The EU officially published in its Oct. 20 Official Journal the revised carbon border adjustment mechanism, which is expected to exempt 90% of European importers from the new rules (see 2509290011). The European Commission said this "marks the final step in the formal adoption process," allowing the bloc to soon require taxes on certain imports covered by the carbon duty. Traders must pay taxes beginning in 2026 (see 2310020037) and 2410170036).

The Council of the European Union on Oct. 20 largely agreed to a European Commission proposal (see 2506180058) that would ban certain Russian gas imports starting on Jan. 1 "while maintaining a transition period for existing contracts." The council next must negotiate with the European Parliament on the final text for the proposal.

EU and Chinese officials are planning to meet in Brussels in the “coming days” to discuss China’s new export controls over rare earths 2510090021), said Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s trade and economic security commissioner, in an Oct. 21 social media post. Sefcovic said Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao will travel to Europe, and the EU hopes to “find urgent solutions on export controls.”

Belgium and Sweden this month joined the EU's Centralized Clearance for Import (CCI) system, which the bloc is hoping to establish as its "one-stop shop" for customs clearance into the EU. The system -- which has already been available for use by European businesses in Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Croatia and Italy -- allows customs authorities of different member states to act as "one customs authority for the clearance of goods," enabling traders to submit customs declarations to their member state "for goods physically presented to a customs office in any other Member State" operating as part of CCI.

To counter Hezbollah’s drug trafficking and other extensive illegal money-raising efforts in Latin America, the U.S. should encourage more countries in the region to designate the Lebanon-based group a terrorist organization, a former State Department official told lawmakers Oct. 21.

The Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill Oct. 21 that would direct the Commerce Department to lead a review of challenges posed by Chinese foreign investment in the U.S. (see 2508010044).

Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the top Democrat on a Russian secondary sanctions bill, said he's not discouraged that Senate Majority Leader John Thune is putting off a vote on the bill again. The bill has 85 sponsors in the Senate, and would give the president the ability to put up to 500% tariffs on the goods of countries that buy Russian fossil fuels; it also would expand sanctions on Russian officials.

Open-source intelligence software firm WireScreen said it has identified more than 20,000 Chinese entities that are subject to U.S. export restrictions as a result of the Bureau of Industry and Security's 50% rule, released last month (see 2510030041 and 2509290017).

The EU should expand export controls over advanced technology and impose new tariffs against China to counter Beijing’s sweeping export curbs on rare earths (see 2510090021), a major European think tank said this week.