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.
Exports to China
Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., introduced a bill last week that would expand the list of sanctionable offenses for human rights violations against Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region. The added offenses would include forced sterilization, forced abortions, forced organ harvesting and seeking the forced deportations of Uyghurs from third countries. The proposed Uyghur Genocide Accountability and Sanctions Act would also authorize secondary sanctions on business and government entities that aid human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced a similar bill last year (see 2305310024).
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
A "snapshot" report just released by the Government Accountability Office reminded Congress that the GAO has studied -- and made recommendations -- on many aspects of how to manage economic competition with China, including providing more resources to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, improving information sharing with companies to keep more counterfeits out of U.S. commerce, and improving the tariff exclusions process for steel and aluminum imports.
The free trade agreement between China and Ecuador will enter into force May 1, China's Ministry of Commerce announced, according to an unofficial translation. The ministry said the agreement will cancel tariffs on about 90% of goods, with 60% of them to take effect immediately on the day the agreement takes effect. The two countries will establish closer ties in areas such as "rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical trade barriers, trade remedies, dispute settlement, investment cooperation, e-commerce, competition, economic cooperation and so on."
China expressed serious concern over the Japanese government's announcement of plans to implement new export controls on semiconductors and other technologies, according to a summary of answers to reporters' questions from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, according to an unofficial translation. The ministry said the move is an effort to generalize the notion of national security and abuse export control measures to fragment the global semiconductor market. The result will "seriously affect the normal trade exchanges between Chinese and Japanese companies" and damage the global supply chain. China said it will "take necessary measures" to safeguard its interests.
The Commerce Department announced new export restrictions April 26 that it says are intended to reduce the risk that firearms end up in the hands of criminals, terrorists or cartels.
The Aluminum Association cheered the Mexican decision to apply tariffs to 544 tariff lines in aluminum and aluminum products. The tariffs are as low as 5% or 10% on some products, but are 25% and 35% on most.
The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body met on April 26 and was introduced to the new facilitator of the dispute settlement reform talks: Mauritius's Usha Dwarka-Canabady, the WTO announced. The chair of the DSB, Norway's Petter Olberg, said that Dwarka-Canabady accepted the role on April 18 after the "convenor" of the reform process left.
The German Federal Prosecutor's Office on April 22 announced the arrest of three German nationals for allegedly working for the Chinese Secret Service and exporting a "special laser" to China without authorization in violation of the Foreign Trade Act, according to an unofficial translation. The laser is subject to the EU Dual-Use Regulation, making its unlicensed export illegal, the office said.