A government shutdown is set to severely impact the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and other trade enforcement bureaus, leaving over 185,000 frontline personnel, spanning from law enforcement, security analysts, to disaster response officials, working without remuneration. Key trade operations – exporters, importers, transportation entities, customs brokers, and all linked to U.S. global trade – are bracing for interruptions. This is especially true if agencies pivotal for trade, such as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Department of Commerce are affected.
Four Republican House Committee Chairs sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas criticizing the implementation and enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), complaining that not enough has been done to penalize violators, and calling for more resources to be dedicated to enforcement.
While Ford Motor Company announced on September 25 that it has paused its partnership with world’s leading EV battery maker, Republican lawmakers complain that Ford will not release confidential business information pertaining to its agreement to license Chinese technology.
On July 3, 2023, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a recent actions notice, reminding holders of property blocked pursuant to OFAC sanctions regulations published in Chapter V of Title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) of the requirement to provide OFAC with an Annual Report of Blocked Property (ARBP).
The Defense Trade Advisory Group (DTAG) will meet in open session from 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 12, 2023. This will be a hybrid meeting
The United States, the European Union and other proponents on Monday apparently failed to provide any convincing reasons as to why the World Trade Organization’s 1998 moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions should be continued beyond the 13th ministerial conference, which is going to be held in Abu Dhabi in February 2024, our correspondent writes.
House Ways and Means Committee members are calling on the Administration and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to fight Canada’s unilateral imposition of a digital service tax. The members noted that almost all 140 economies participating in the OECD work to reach agreement on updated international tax rules approved a one-year extension of the moratorium on DSTs through December 31, 2024. “We are disappointed that Canada is unfortunately moving against this global consensus with a punitive DST scheduled to take effect next year.”
Reacting to news reports of espionage activities linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on American soil, Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), along with other members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, have called for an urgent classified briefing from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
In a stern letter, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) warned Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that regulations must be immediately issued to prevent taxpayer funded subsidies for electric vehicles and batteries in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) from flowing to adversarial nations such as China.
House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc) and Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich) are calling on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to withhold any federal support for Chinese battery companies in the United States. The lawmakers – in a letter to Ms. Yellen – specifically scrutinized Treasury for greenlighting new plans for a Michigan battery factory owned and operated by China based Gotion High-Tech Company.
President Biden announced yesterday he has tapped former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker for the newly-created position of US Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery. In her new position, Ms. Pritzker will work with the Ukrainian government, US allies and partners, international financial institutions and the private sector to drive US efforts to help rebuild the Ukrainian economy following Russia’s invasion, according to a White House statement.
Congress, through various means, has shown sustained interest in the export policy, emphasizing the balance between maintaining U.S. technological leadership and preventing adversaries from accessing advanced technologies. Christopher Casey of the Congressional Research Service penned a report released September 8 that frames this topic for policymakers and practicioners alike.
Gerry Horner, Chief of the Trade Regulations Branch at the US Census Bureau, gave the committee an update on two Notices of Proposed Rulemaking: the Routed Export Transaction rule, published prior to 2019, and the Country of Origin data element, released in December 2021.
A group of Congressional Democrats are raising questions with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo over her department’s failure to release data on its approvals of assault weapons exports. …
Huawei's release of a phone called the Mate 60 Pro has the industrial security community atwitter, if we can still use that word. The device boasts a processor fabricated at seven nanometers, a threshold of precision the allied export controls of chipmaking equipment were meant to thwart.
Representatives Gregory Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Andy Barr (R-KY), Vice Chair of the House India Caucus,introduced legislation to loosen export restrictions of high-performance computing equipment to India.
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party will hold a hearing on September 12th at 8:30 a.m., at Peterson Hall at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, NY. The committee is also expected to host a tabletop war game for Wall Street executives to illustrate a PRC invation of Taiwan.
The recently unveiled United States Strategy on Countering Corruption delineates an ambitious approach to address corruption through a series of well-defined measures. This initiative, detailed under five distinct pillars, seeks to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of existing government frameworks, both within and outside U.S borders. To curb corruption and its deleterious effects, the U.S. Government will organize its efforts around five mutually reinforcing pillars of work: 1. Modernizing, coordinating, and resourcing U.S. Government efforts to fight corruption; 2. Curbing illicit finance; 3. Holding corrupt actors accountable; 4. Preserving and strengthening the multilateral anti-corruption architecture; and, 5. Improving diplomatic engagement and leveraging foreign assistance resources to advance policy goals.
Based on a BIS review of the existing Section 232 exclusion process for areas of improvement and public comments on the current process for submissions to BIS, BIS is publishing this proposed rule to propose revisions to the Section 232 exclusions process, including to the Section 232 Exclusions Portal. The proposed rule to amend the Section 232 exclusions process comprises four salient modifications designed to refine efficiency, fairness, and transparency.
While staffers from the other China Committee recover from their CoDel to New Guniea, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission will hold a hearing Monday, August 21, on "China's Current Economy: Implications for Investors and Supply Chains" starting at 9:30 a.m. ET. Agenda indicates the first two hours will address China's Economy, with the trade discussion beginning at 11:20 AM. Livestream on the commission's web page.