The European Union has proposed to remove tariffs on American industrial goods, including a reduction in auto tariffs from August 1, as part of a broader US-EU trade agreement aimed at restoring stability and predictability in transatlantic trade relations, following tense negotiations and commitments to increase energy and investment exchanges.
Russian companies have been looting industrial goods, including steel, coal, pig iron, and cargo containers, from factories in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion. The estimated value of the goods plundered is over $15 million. The Western-sanctioned Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) seized nearly $100,000 worth of freight containers in Mariupol, aided by the Belarus-based Mogilev Metallurgical Factory. The investigative report also revealed that the shipment of Ukrainian coal into Russia was facilitated mainly by the Taltek Group, a coal-mining and transportation company whose president Yuri Kocherinsky lives near Russian general Sergei Surovikin in the elite Rublyovka neighborhood in Moscow’s suburbs.