China will launch a dispute at the World Trade Organization in response to Canada’s decision to impose new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle, steel and aluminum imports (see 2408260033), the country’s commerce ministry said Sept. 3. The ministry also said it will begin separate antidumping duty investigations on imports of Canadian canola and certain chemicals after receiving requests for those probes from Chinese companies.
Exports to China
The U.S. government should make greater use of economic sanctions against the Houthis to weaken the Yemen-based group’s ability to attack international shipping in the Red Sea, a Yemeni think-tank leader recommended Sept. 4.
China is launching a new online declaration process for exporters of automobiles and motorcycles beginning Sept. 5, the country’s commerce ministry said this week, according to an unofficial translation. Exporters and manufacturers will use the system to upload information about their shipments and obtain export licenses. “If it is found that an enterprise provides false materials, it will notify, warn, suspend or cancel its qualification to engage in automobile or motorcycle export according to relevant regulations,” the ministry said.
The House of Representatives plans to vote on several export control-related bills next week, including the Remote Access Security Act, which is designed to close a loophole that has allowed China to use cloud service providers to access advanced U.S. computing chips remotely.
Nazak Nikakhtar, acting head of the Bureau of Industry and Security during the Trump administration, blamed the deep state for a lack of urgency in confronting China, during a podcast interview with China Talk. Nikakhtar did not use that term, but said that it was hard for Commerce Department career officials to shift their thinking from promoting exports of goods to restricting exports or investment. Nikakhtar was previously a civil servant herself, working on antidumping and countervailing duty cases and negotiations with China.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Sept. 3 that the Bureau of Industry and Security is failing to stem the flow of U.S.-made advanced computing chips to China and must take additional steps to stop the “semiconductor leakage.”
Defense firm RTX Corp. will pay $200 million to settle alleged violations of U.S. defense export controls, the largest standalone export penalty ever issued by the State Department. RTX voluntarily disclosed the 750 violations, the agency said in a charging letter, most of which involved “historical” issues by an aerospace firm acquired by RTX in 2018.
The Netherlands won’t renew licenses that had allowed leading Dutch chip equipment maker ASML to repair and maintain certain semiconductor equipment in China, Bloomberg reported last week. Those licenses are expected to expire later this year, the report said, and had covered ASML’s advanced deep ultraviolet lithography machines. The Bureau of Industry and Security had been pushing certain allies, including the Netherlands, to stop their semiconductor companies from servicing certain advanced chip tools under pre-existing contracts with Chinese customers (see 2403270038).
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had “extended discussions” about economics and national security, including technology export controls, in talks with senior leaders in China this week (see 2408280042), he said during an Aug. 29 press conference in Beijing.
The Treasury Department issued a final rule this week that will make investment advisers subject to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing requirements, which it said will close a loophole that allows criminal actors to hide money in the U.S. and sanctioned companies to access sensitive technology through investments in American firms.