Aurelia Butler

Below is a list of the measures announced by the government on Tuesday:PUTIN OFFICIALSBritain imposed sanctions on Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, the former Russian president and top security official Dmitry Medvedev, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov and foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.TYCOONSBritain imposed sanctions on Russian businessmen, including Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and Andrei Melnichenko.The government said the oligarchs sanctioned on Tuesday had a combined estimated worth of more than 100 billion pounds, based on Forbes estimates. BAN ON LUXURY GOODS”The export ban will come into force shortly and will make sure oligarchs and other members of the elite, who have grown rich under President Putin’s reign and support his illegal invasion, are deprived of access to luxury goods,” the government said in a statement.”The ban will likely affect luxury vehicles, high-end fashion and works of art.” END OF MOST FAVOURED NATION STATUS Britain will “deny Russia and Belarus access to Most Favoured Nation tariff for hundreds of their exports, depriving them of key benefits of WTO membership,” the government said in a statement.NEW TARIFFS ON IMPORTSBritain published a list of goods – including vodka – which will now face additional tariffs of 35%, on top of any existing duties.Iron, steel, wood, copper, aluminium, silver, lead, iron ore and beverages are among the Russian imports that will face the higher tariffs, the government said. More

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain imposed sanctions on hundreds of Russian individuals and entities on Tuesday, using a new law to catch up with the European Union and United States in targeting people accused of propping up Russian President Vladimir Putin.Britain, the EU and U.S. hope the sanctions will deter Putin from pressing his invasion of Ukraine.In the latest round of sanctions, brought quickly after the government’s Economic Crime Bill became law, Britain moved against those close to Putin, such as former president Dmitry Medvedev, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian television executive, Konstantin Ernst.Russian businessmen Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven, oligarchs who amassed their wealth before Putin came to power, were also put under sanctions, as were Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.Britain said the latest round of sanctions included elites with a net worth of 100 billion pounds ($130.63 billion).”We are going further and faster than ever in hitting those closest to Putin – from major oligarchs, to his prime minister, and the propagandists who peddle his lies and disinformation. We are holding them to account for their complicity in Russia’s crimes in Ukraine,” foreign minister Liz Truss said.”Working closely with our allies, we will keep increasing the pressure on Putin and cut off funding for the Russian war machine,” she said in a statement.She said Britain had imposed more than 370 new sanctions, taking the total to over 1,000 since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.Britain earlier said it would ban the export of luxury goods to Russia and impose a new 35% tariff on 900 million pounds ($1.2 billion) worth of Russian imports, including vodka, metals, fertilisers and other commodities.”Our new tariffs will further isolate the Russian economy from global trade, ensuring it does not benefit from the rules-based international system it does not respect,” finance minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement.Russia says it is carrying out a “special operation” to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine, which Kyiv and its allies call a baseless pretext to invade a democratic nation of 44 million people.The government said the export ban would come into effect shortly and it would soon set out which products were affected, but added they would likely include high-end fashion, works of art and luxury vehicles. Many British firms including carmakers Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin and luxury fashion label Burberry have already said they are temporarily shutting their outlets in Russia or suspending the supply of goods. The government said the goods subject to an additional tariff of 35% had been chosen to minimise impact on Britain while maximising impact on the Russian economy. The goods include iron, steel, fertilisers, wood, tyres, railway containers, cement, copper, aluminium, silver, lead, iron ore, residue/food waste products, beverages, spirits and vinegar glass and glassware, cereals, oil seeds, paper and paperboard, machinery, works of art, antiques, fur skins and artificial fur, ships and white fish.The government also said it was cutting off all export finance support to Russia and Belarus, meaning it will no longer issue any new guarantees, loans or insurance for exports. Existing British exposure to Russia through its export credit agency is around 100 million pounds.($1 = 0.7677 pounds) More

The forecast represents a jump of 13% from 2021 and follows a total spend of $1.7 trillion over the course of two years of the COVID-19 crisis, starting March 2020. “The pandemic was a consequential moment for e-commerce. Not only did it accelerate growth by nearly two years, but it also impacted the types of goods consumers are willing to buy online,” said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights.Online spending on groceries soared during the health crisis, rising 7.2% last year after more than doubling in 2020, as consumers preferred the safety and convenience of home deliveries and curbside pick-up. That compared with only modest growth for apparel, while electronics cemented its position as the top category in online shopping. “E-commerce is being reshaped by grocery shopping, a category with minimal discounting compared to legacy categories like electronics and apparel,” said Patrick Brown, vice president of growth marketing and insights at Adobe.The forecast for 2022 is also supported by signs of robust demand from consumers even as prices surge for products from snacks to sweatshirts.After accounting for $32 billion of e-commerce sales last year, inflation is expected to make up as much as $27 billion in online spending in 2022, Adobe said. The company covers over one trillion visits to U.S. retail websites in its analysis. More

The EU is acquiring powers aimed at stopping companies from China, India and other large economies from winning big public procurement contracts unless they give reciprocal access to European companies.The commission, member states and the European parliament struck a deal on Monday night on legislation intended to protect EU bidders from unfair competition and open up markets overseas.“Currently, European procurement is broadly open to companies from third countries, but European companies do not always have reciprocal access to public procurement in those countries,” said Franck Riester, trade minister for France, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU.“This new European instrument will equip the EU with credible leverage to open up our partners’ public procurement to our companies and will enable us to right that imbalance and defend our companies against these discriminatory practices. Today’s well-balanced agreement is a historic step in implementing an open, sustainable and firm trade policy.”The international procurement instrument was first put forward in 2012 but was resisted fiercely as overly protectionist by many liberal member states. However, opposition has waned after mounting evidence that state-funded businesses from China, India and elsewhere have been undercutting EU rivals while their governments kept domestic markets closed.It is one of a series of measures the EU is adopting in response to protectionist moves in the US, China, India and elsewhere. They include powers to retaliate against embargoes and to block business acquisitions by foreign state-funded companies. Public procurement is worth €2tn annually in the EU and about €350bn is open to overseas companies, according to the European Commission.EU companies win only €10bn of contracts annually abroad, however, with half the world’s public procurement markets closed. The value of China’s rail market available to foreign bidders fell from 63 per cent in 2009 to 19 per cent in 2017, for example.Once the legislation is approved the commission will determine whether barriers exist in the public procurement market of a third country and will be able to “handicap” any bid from that country. Brussels could increase the price proposed by an overseas bidder by up to 100 per cent to reduce unfair competition. Alternatively it could mark down the overall score attached to its bid by up to 50 per cent, making it less likely to win.The measures only apply to tenders worth at least €15mn for works and concessions, such as road or tunnel construction, and €5mn for goods and services, such as buying software. They would cover 15 per cent of all procurement contracts but they represent more than 70 per cent of the total by value.Bidders from least developed countries are exempt. Bernd Lange, chair of the European parliament’s international trade committee, said the intention was to open up markets abroad to EU companies: “The message is clear: fair market access is not a one-way street, it must be reciprocal. We do not want to close off the European market, we want to ensure equal treatment of our companies abroad.”The deal has to be endorsed formally by the 27 member states and voted through by the full parliament. More