The Treasury Department’s new proposed rule restricting U.S. outbound investment is "narrowly targeted" and aims to address technology that could enhance China’s military, intelligence or cyber capabilities, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told a congressional panel July 9.
Exports to China
The House Foreign Affairs Committee this week plans to mark up a newly unveiled bill that would sanction foreign persons engaged in piracy.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said July 8 that he hopes to have a "significant package of China-related legislation" signed into law this year, including measures to "punish" Chinese military firms that provide material support to Russia and Iran.
House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific Chairwoman Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., and House Select Committee on China Chairman Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., introduced a bill July 2 that would require the Commerce Department to identify foreign adversary entities that use high-tech American intellectual property without a license.
The EU on July 1 launched an antidumping investigation on imports of epoxy resins from China, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand after receiving a complaint from a group of epoxy resin producers. The European Commission said it will investigate certain products “containing more than 35% by weight of epoxy resins, with certain exclusions, and it expects to conclude the investigation within one year. The epoxy resin producers, comprised of Olin Corp., Westlake Corp. and Spolchemie, said exporters from the four countries are “selling their products on the EU market at unfairly low prices that significantly undercut the prices of European producers.”
The Treasury Department published in the July 5 Federal Register its proposed rule, unveiled in June, that could introduce new prohibitions and notification requirements on U.S. outbound investments in China’s semiconductor, quantum and artificial intelligence sectors (see 2405080039). Public comments on the rule are due Aug. 4.
EU governments need to do more to stop China from exporting dual-use items to Russia, including by sanctioning more Chinese companies and imposing secondary sanctions on foreign banks and other entities that are helping to facilitate those transactions, three think tanks said in a recent report.
Canada this week launched a 30-day consultation period as it decides whether to impose additional duties or take other measures against Chinese electronic vehicle imports. The consultations, which began July 2 and will run through Aug. 1, “seek views on potential policy responses,” Canada said, including new tariffs on a range of battery, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell electric vehicles.
The U.K. must reassess whether it should investigate cotton imports from China suspected of being made with forced labor after an appellate court ruled last month that the country’s National Crime Agency wrongly decided against opening the probe.
A former top trade negotiator in Mexico, Juan Carlos Baker Pineda, said he doesn't think the review of the USMCA will be about fine-tuning or technical changes to the trade pact.