The Withdrawal Agreement Bill has progressed through the UK Parliament legislative process, resulting in the UK leaving the EU as of January 31, 2020 and entering the Transition Period. During the Transition Period, the UK will continue to follow EU rules, which effectively means that the UK remains within the Single Market and Customs Union until December 31, 2020. Businesses can, therefore, expect no immediate changes to occur to their VAT and customs processes when trading in and with the...

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Vanessa Marquette has joined Loyens & Loeff in Belgium since 2 March 2020 as new partner. She is appointed as third partner of the Banking & Finance practice group of the Brussels office, next to Marc Vermylen and Koen Panis, where she will further develop our Financial Regulatory footprint in Belgium. Vanessa is recognized for her expertise in Banking & Finance with a focus on international finance law, regulated financial services, banking litigation and sustainable finance. She assists regulated entities such as financial institutions, payment services...

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2020 marks the beginning of a new era for the container shipping industry. January 1 brought with it the implementation of a regulation issued by the International Maritime Organization known as IMO 2020, which requires carriers to limit the sulfur content of the fuel they burn to 0.5%—a drastic reduction from the previous cap of 3.5%. The aim of the mandate, one of the most substantial and far-reaching regulatory changes in the marine shipping industry’s history, is to sharply reduce...

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 Li Xu was appointed as Vice Secretary of the Overseas United Working Committee (OUWC) of the China Association for Promoting International Economic & Technical Cooperation, a subcommittee of the China Association for Science and Technology which is registered in the Ministry of Civil Affairs.   In her new role, Ms. Xu is organizing a global think-tank forum to address the post coronavirus rebuilding effort.  The OUWC is responding to the demands “facing the world frontier of science and technology, economic key...

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EU-UK Future Relationship: Council adopts negotiating directives On Tuesday, the EU Council adopted a decision to authorise the commencement of negotiations on the future relationship with the UK. As has been repeatedly stated by the EU, the mandate stresses that the future partnership must be “underpinned by robust commitments to ensure a level playing field for open and fair competition”. This is especially important to the EU, given the geographical proximity and economic interdependence between the blocs. Keep reading Europe reacts...

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Emergency decrees has been issued to tackle the spread of Coronavirus in “red zones” and other risk areas: “smart working”, allowing employees to work remotely, may be implemented even absent previous agreement between the parties (which is, generally, instead a prerequisite). In compliance with the general obligation to preserve employees’ health, employers must identify alternative measures to minimize risk of infection and preserve the earning capacity of employees not working “smartly”. Italian government approved over the week-end urgent measures to...

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On February 13, 2020, the United States brought new criminal charges against Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Company, alleging that the company participated in a racketeering conspiracy and conspired to steal trade secrets from companies in the United States. The new charges are in addition to the government’s previous allegations that Huawei committed financial fraud and deliberately evaded U.S. sanctions on Iran and North Korea. According to the allegations in the superseding indictment, Huawei used various methods to misappropriate intellectual...

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