It’s been a turbulent year in export controls and sanctions, as some nations have faced heavier sanctions, others have seen them removed and China has flexed its muscle on controls around the export of critical minerals.
Today, the Daily Update is recapping some of the major stories in this area of ever-increasing importance in trade from throughout 2025.
AUKUS
The major story this year, says the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade academy’s Andy Bridges, has been the pact between Australia, the UK and US (AUKUS).
Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio endorsed AUKUS after a long review of the agreement, which was first struck under the Biden administration. Rubio affirmed that the US is seeking a “full steam ahead” approach.
The commitment to AUKUS represents “the first time in a very long time that the US has actually reduced the amount of red tape”, particularly around International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) licences, says Bridges.
“It was totally out of the blue. But this AUKUS agreement is going to see X amount of nuclear-powered submarines built between the UK and US for and on behalf of the Australian government.
“The Americans are very much in charge of the programme, but they’ve given it its own ITAR licence, 126.7.”
This is a major positive development, Bridges says, because it has “made it much easier” for firms involved in this specific programme to move goods around between the three nations.
“There's still export controls in place, but they've removed a lot of the red tape for companies that are involved in that programme.”
Some 15,000 American companies, 900 Australian companies and 300 UK companies stand to benefit from the change, Bridges says.
Rare earths
The AUKUS commitment also plays into the US’ approach to critical supply chains, particularly those on rare earths, where the North American nation and Australia recently signed a new agreement. Rubio said:
“We have to have critical mineral supplies and supply chains that are reliable and that are diverse, and not overly invested in one place where they can be used as leverage against us, or our partners, or the world.”
These comments reflect one of the other major themes of this year for export controls: their use by China to put pressure on Western supplies of critical minerals.
Reuters reported last week that China’s exertion of control over global supply of rare earths – it processes 90% of the world’s processing of the minerals – has forced one in three European firms to shift away from China as a source.
Over 40% of respondents to a flash survey by the EU Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, said China’s commerce ministry is processing export licences more slowly than it has promised.
Government-industry engagement
Brinley Salzmann, director for overseas and exports at ADS Group, says that the story of the year is the government's desire “to work closely with industry”.
At the Export Controls Joint Unit (ECJU) Symposium in London on 15 October, Salzmann explains, the government “stood up and said they want industry to come up with ideas” on how the open general export licencing (OGEL) system can be expanded “in a least-risk way”.
“That is the easiest licencing option – OGELs are meant to take the least contentious goods going to the least contentious customers, where the answers are all going to be yes, out of the equation.
“We’ve got a fairly stable number of OGELs, and very few new ones have been added of late. The licencing system in the UK is probably resourced to cope with about 12,000 licence applications, but since 2008 there have been many times more than that. We need to try to find some mechanism which enables that.”
The government’s increasing engagement with industry, and its “appetite for greater partnership”, is something “to be welcomed and which we need to capitalise on”, Salzmann says.
Sanctions
The sanctions story continued this year, as the US dialled up some sanctions on Russia while offering relief to Belarus and Syria on others.
The Trump administration made good on suggestions that it would hit Russia with sanctions on its oil, with new measures hitting major Russian oil firms Rosneft and Lukoil towards the end of October. Russian oil and gas revenues are estimated to have fallen by a third year-on-year in November as result, with purchases from Turkey, India and Brazil all seeing a drop.
The US Treasury said on announcing the sanctions in October that it is “prepared to take further action if necessary” to bring the Russia-Ukraine war to a halt, and Bloomberg reported yesterday (17 December) that the US is indeed readying a new package of sanctions on Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ of oil tankers, as well as on those who facilitate financial transactions for its oil exports.
Other nations have fared better with regard to sanctions. Syria enjoyed relief from a wide range of US sanctions following the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad, though these have only been temporarily lifted by Trump, while Congress is expected to pass a bill for permanent relief in the coming weeks.
Belarus has also seen US sanctions on its potash lifted as it freed 123 political prisoners, among them the main opposition leader, this month.
The UK has imposed its own new sanctions this year, including on entities in Israel and on Russia’s shadow fleet. The government has also said this week that funds from the sale of Chelsea FC by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich amounting to £2.5bn must be given to Ukraine within 90 days, or else Abramovich will face court action.
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