If President Donald Trump is not re-elected, the next administration will remain focused on China, export controls and Entity List actions but will likely approach China with a more clear, predictable strategy, two former top Commerce Department officials said. “You would see a more well-defined, carefully thought-through approach to issues like Huawei,” Peter Lichtenbaum, who served as Commerce’s assistant secretary for export administration during the Bush administration, said during a March 6 International Trade Update panel at the Georgetown University law school. “Not because it's a Democratic [administration], but because it's a more regular-order administration and less policy made by tweet.”

The last American to serve on the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body, Tom Graham, told the Georgetown Law International Trade Update conference that the body “is not coming back any time soon.” Graham, who largely agrees with the U.S. critique of Appellate Body overreach, added, “The new I have come to ... is that it's better this way.” Graham was the most prominent, but far from the only speaker at the March 5-6 conference to say that neither the Europeans nor the Americans are ready to have a meeting of the minds on how to reform the appellate function of the rules-based trading order.

The Commerce Department is “pushing forward” on increased restrictions of foreign exports to Huawei that contain U.S. content, Secretary Wilbur Ross said during a March 5 Senate hearing. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., told Ross he hopes Commerce follows through with the restrictions -- which would include changes to the de minimis rule and the Direct Product Rule (see 2002050047) -- adding that Commerce has been “appropriately aggressive” in pursuing more stringent controls on technology exports to Huawei and China. But Van Hollen noted that Commerce has faced pushback from other parts of the Trump administration, including the Defense and the Treasury Departments (see 2001240012).

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., introduced legislation on March 5 meant to make sure “U.S. communications infrastructure security is a clear negotiating objective of our country’s trade policy,” he said in a news release. “This legislation would ensure the security of equipment and technology that create the global communications infrastructure are front and center in our trade negotiations, because you can’t have free trade if the global digital infrastructure is compromised.”

The coronavirus outbreak is expected to decrease global exports by $50 billion as the spread of the virus continues to disrupt global supply chains, according to a March 4 report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. The slowdown is directly tied to China’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index, which fell by 22 points in February, implying a 2% reduction in exports on an annual basis, the report said. The fact that China is a “central manufacturing hub” will have significant “repercussions” for countries reliant on trade with the country, the report said. “Any slowdown in manufacturing in one part of the world will have a ripple effect in economic activity across the globe because of regional and global value chains,” UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture expects China to begin fulfilling portions of its agricultural purchase commitments by the end of this summer, Secretary Sonny Perdue said during a March 4 House hearing. Although the coronavirus outbreak has delayed the purchase commitments under the phase one trade deal (see 2001150073) and thrown global agricultural trade into uncertainty, Perdue said the USDA has received “signals” that China intends to fully comply with the purchase agreements (see 2002250055). “We believe that China is a shrewd customer. They’re going to buy where the best deal is,” Perdue told the House Agriculture Committee. “We think they’ll come into this market in late spring and summer and fulfill the commitments.”

The U.S. should lobby for increased export controls and more stringent sanctions regimes relating to weapons proliferation at the upcoming Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference, arms control experts said during a March 3 House hearing. While it may be difficult for all treaty members to sign off on a broad consensus document relating to non-proliferation, the U.S. should use the spring conference in New York to seek common ground on controls of items used to produce dangerous weapons.

The United Kingdom government emphasized that its National Health Service will not pay more for drugs as a result of a U.S.-United Kingdom free trade deal, and that Britain “will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards.” The latter seems to be a reference to sanitary standards that frustrate U.S. exporters, such as a ban on anti-bacterial washes of chicken. The government issued its negotiating objectives and an analysis of the economic benefit to the U.K. of a free trade deal in the March 2 document.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 24-28 in case you missed them.

Companies looking to comply with U.S. sanctions should use screening programs from trusted third parties instead of trying to build their own, according to Brian Grant, head of global compliance of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. The need for companies to have robust compliance programs has grown “significantly” over the last several years, he said, and using screening software and procedures from experienced companies creates less risk.