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.
Exports to China
The Commerce Department should start preparing export controls for dual-use artificial intelligence models, which could prevent those models from being used to make biosecurity weapons or skirt U.S. export restrictions on advanced semiconductors, researchers told the agency in comments released this month. But technology companies and industry groups warned the U.S. against overbroad controls, which they said could hurt American AI innovation.
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.
Russia is still able to buy semiconductors for its war effort -- especially from China -- despite Western sanctions and export controls, a semiconductor policy researcher said in a new report this month. Although the restrictions are forcing Russia to pay almost double for some chips and require Russian supply chain managers to constantly find new supply lines, the report said Chinese suppliers are increasingly filling the market gap left by companies in the U.S. and elsewhere who are adhering to the export restrictions.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in an interview with Reuters, said that while in her view, outright seizure of frozen Russian assets in the U.S. and Europe is justifiable, that's not the only option to put those assets to use to help Ukraine's economy survive the Russian invasion.
The European Commission on April 24 opened the first investigation under its International Procurement Instrument in response to practices in the Chinese procurement market for medical devices which allegedly "discriminate unfairly against European companies and products," the commission said.
U.S. exports of semiconductors and their components to China dropped 39% to $6.8 billion in 2023 and were down 52% from their 2021 peak, partly due to restrictions the Bureau of Industry and Security released in October 2022 and expanded a year later (see [Ref:2310170055), the U.S.-China Business Council said April 23.
The State Department will “probably” meet a new deadline to finalize an International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) exemption for Australia and the U.K. under the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) Enhanced Trilateral Security Partnership, a department official said April 23.
President Joe Biden signed into law April 24 a wide-ranging national security bill that will, among other things, ban TikTok in the U.S. if China’s ByteDance doesn't sell the popular social media application to an entity that isn’t controlled by a foreign adversary (see 2404220041 and 2404180020).
Japan opened an antidumping duty investigation on graphite electrodes from China, the ministries of Finance and Economy, Trade and Industry announced, according to an unofficial translation. The ministries decided to conduct the joint investigation following a petition from Japanese companies SEC Carbon, Tokai Carbon Co. and Nippon Carbon Co. The investigation will take one year and will allow for interested parties to comment on the proceeding.