A Senate bill introduced June 13 with bipartisan support would require the Trump administration to submit reports to Congress on whether Hong Kong is following U.S. export control laws and sanctions. The requirement, part of a bill that would amend the Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, would order the Treasury, State and Commerce secretaries to send several House and Senate committees a report on whether Hong Kong has enforced U.S. export controls with respect to “sensitive dual-use items” and abided by both U.S. and United Nations sanctions. The administration would need to submit the reports within 180 days after the enactment of the bill, which was introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
Exports to China
Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security added five Chinese computing companies to its Entity List, requiring licenses for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations with a review policy of presumption of denial. The entities are: Chengdu Haiguang Integrated Circuit, Chengdu Haiguang Microelectronics Technology, Higon, Sugon and Wuxi Jiangnan Institute of Computing Technology.
Iran is reducing its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action because it said other JCPOA “parties do not abide by theirs,” according to a June 18 press release by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
The day after President Donald Trump officially launched his re-election campaign, moderate Democrat Rep. Ron Kind warned the administration's top trade official that the China trade war is making voters in his home state of Wisconsin lose patience. Trump won Kind's district by 4 percentage points, and narrowly won Wisconsin in the Electoral College.
Most of the questions to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer about the Section 301 tariff actions focused on the pain to U.S. consumers and the difficulties faced by importers of products that are subject to 25 percent tariffs. But Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told the nation's top trade negotiator that even a local meat locker has been hurt by the trade war. Thune, who was questioning Lighthizer during his appearance June 18 in front of the Senate Finance Committee, said the meat locker employee told him that before the trade war began, someone would buy cow hides for $150 each. China imports a lot of animal skins to support its furniture and shoemaking industries. "Now I have to pay 600 a head to haul it away," Thune said the man told him, which is a cost of $40,000 a year. For a business that size, that could be the entire profit margin, Thune said.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 10-14 in case they were missed.
Auto exporters will be “among the biggest beneficiaries” of a ratified U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said during a June 18 Senate Finance Committee hearing, adding that he has “hope” the U.S. will reach a trade deal with Japan within the next “few months.”
Trade negotiations will resume with China ahead of a meeting between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping, Trump tweeted June 18. He said he and Xi "will be having an extended meeting next week at the G-20 in Japan." The White House said the two leaders talked on that morning about "structural barriers to trade with China and achieving meaningful reforms that are enforceable and verifiable."
The European Union released a report detailing what it says are “45 new trade barriers” outside the EU in 2018 that damaged EU businesses, costing them “billions of Euros every year,” the EU said in a June 17 press release. The EU said the report “confirms” the rise of trade barriers encountered by European companies in foreign markets, which is now at 425 barriers in 59 countries.
A spokeswoman for China’s National Development and Reform Commission on June 17 gave the clearest indication yet that China may seek to impose restrictions on rare earths exports to retaliate for U.S. tariffs. In response to a question during a regularly scheduled press conference on potential export restrictions, the spokeswoman said China is “resolutely opposed” to “anyone who attempts to use China’s rare earth resources to manufacture products” that are used to “contain and suppress China’s development,” according to an unofficial translation. The spokeswoman also mentioned the possibility of export controls and traceability requirements for Chinese rare earths.