The Biden administration, which announced in August 2023 that it would develop restrictions on outbound investment in China (see 2308090066), expects to finalize the new regulations by the end of calendar year 2024, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said May 8.
Exports to China
The Bureau of Industry and Security added 37 Chinese entities to the Entity List for trying to acquire export controlled items for China’s military or quantum technology efforts, helping to ship controlled items to Russia, or for supporting China’s “High Altitude Balloon” program. The additions, outlined in a final rule that was released and took effect May 9, include technology companies, manufacturing firms, research institutions and others. They will be subject to license requirements for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations, and licenses will be reviewed under a presumption of denial.
The U.S. will struggle to compete technologically with China unless it continues to loosen trade barriers around sensitive technologies for a broader range of allies outside just the U.K. and Australia, Mike Gallagher, a former member of Congress, said this week.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, along with French President Emmanuel Macron, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Paris this week to discuss trade, Russia’s war against Ukraine and other topics, von der Leyen said in a statement.
TikTok asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit May 7 to overturn a recently enacted law that will ban the popular social media application in the United States if China’s ByteDance doesn't sell the app to an entity that isn’t controlled by a foreign adversary.
Senate Democrats are urging the Treasury Department to quickly finalize a proposed rule that could make investment advisers subject to more sanctions-related compliance requirements, adding that the agency should also require advisers to follow rigorous due diligence requirements that currently apply to large banks. But financial industry organizations said Treasury should revise the proposal because investment advisers are already covered by existing anti-money laundering laws and aren’t the right target for new compliance guardrails.
A bipartisan group of four House members introduced a bill last week they said would close an export control loophole that has allowed China to access advanced U.S. computing chips remotely.
Aggressive new U.S. export controls on advanced computing chips and the equipment to manufacture them are having unintended side effects and may be causing more harm than good for Western companies, a Brussels-based think-tank said.
German automakers don't want the EU to impose trade restrictions on Chinese electric vehicles, Hildegard Muller, president of the German Automotive Industry Association, told Beijing in a meeting with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao this week.
The Treasury and State departments announced May 1 that they are sanctioning more than 280 entities and people in Russia and third countries for helping Moscow sustain its military industrial base during its war against Ukraine.