Members of the House Select Committee on China unveiled three bipartisan bills last week aimed at reducing US dependence on China for critical minerals. The bills were developed by the panel’s Critical Mineral Policy Working Group, which held its final meeting of the year Wednesday. The bills, included in a report released by the working group promote international cooperation and workforce reforms, as well as measures which appear designed to render uneconomic Chinese battery and magnet manufacturers in the US.

The US Trade Representative’s Office announced last week it is hiking tariffs on tungsten and some clean energy products from China as it wraps up a Section 301 investigation. The tariff rates for solar wafers and polysilicon will increase to 50 percent, and the rates for certain tungsten products will increase to 25 percent, according to USTR.

The US Trade Representative’s Office is gearing up for its 2025 Section 301 review to identify countries that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights or deny fair and equitable market access. USTR is seeking public comments on that identify acts, policies, or practices that may form the basis of a country’s identification as a Priority Foreign Country or placement on the Priority Watch List or Watch List.

Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rick Scott (R-FL) have introduced legislation which blocks the recently finalized Treasury Department rule on 45X production tax credits from being implemented. The legislation was introduced in the House by Reps. John Moolenaar (R- MI) and Jared Golden (D-Maine). The 45X credit subsidizes the production of five types of goods: solar energy components, wind energy components, battery components, inverters, and critical minerals. The 45X credit is projected to cost taxpayers $72.7 billion between FY2023 and FY2027.

A Chinese national who purchased a Kentucky magnet company was indicted for his role in an illegal scheme to send export-controlled defense-related technical data to China and to unlawfully supply the Department of Defense (DOD) with Chinese-origin rare earth magnets for aviation systems and military items.  

Friday Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) released a report on the use of mature-node semiconductor chips, or legacy chips, in supply chains that directly or indirectly support U.S. critical infrastructure. Nearly half of surveyed companies were unable to determine whether their products contained any chips manufactured by PRC-based foundries. The report notes that capacity expansion in China has begun to cause pricing pressure on U.S. chip suppliers.

A Chinese-owned producer and distributor of aluminum extrusions in the Dominican Republic has been determined to be employing convict, forced or indentured labor by US Customs and Border Protection. This comes on the heels of a successful appeal by Kingtom Aluminio SRL, of an Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) case before the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT), where an alleger asserted Kingtom Aluminio was evading antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China. 

Tadashi Yanai, chairman and president of Fast Retailing, the parent company of Japanese fast fashion giant Uniqlo, said the company does not use Xinjiang cotton. Speaking in Tokyo about the firm's measures to be more transparent about where the materials in its clothes come from and how they are made, Yanai said: "We're not using [cotton from Xinjiang," BBC reported on Thursday.  "Actually, it gets too political if I say anymore so let's stop here,"

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), on behalf of the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF), announced the addition of 29 companies based in the People’s Republic of China to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List – bringing the total number of entities on the UFLPA Entity List to 107.  The 29 added entities span sectors including agriculture, food processing, and industrial materials.  Twenty-three additional entities in agriculture are cited for sourcing products like tomato paste, walnuts, and raisins from XUAR, with sales traced through online wholesale markets.

United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced Friday  that the United States has asked Mexico to review whether workers at Akwel Juárez México, S.A. de C.V., in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The United States has suspended liquidation of tariffs on goods from the facility, which manufactures auto parts. The request, which was made in response to a petition, marks the thirty-first time the United States has formally invoked the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRM) in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

On November the 25th, governments from across the world will meet in Busan, South Korea, for INC-5, the final stage of negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty. This session aims to finalize an international legally binding instrument addressing plastic pollution, encompassing the entire lifecycle of plastics.

Congressman John Moolenaar called on the Commerce Department to apply the "special rules for costs" in evaluating imports of Epoxy resin from China that compete with Dow Chemical. "Special rules"  empower Commerce to adjust reported costs submitted by foreign producers and counter overcapacity and market distortion when they occur in the American economy.

Magi planning their holiday gift-giving may have to reconsider choices in light of a recent CBP finding of forced labor in the Frankinsense trade. Effective November 1, 2024, U.S. Customs and …

The U.S. Census Bureau has issued a proposed rule to amend regulations governing export reporting requirements, with an emphasis on clarifying procedures for in-transit shipments, the role of the U.S. Principal Party in Interest (USPPI), and the responsibilities of customs brokers.

California dronemaker Skydio reports that Chinese sanctions are impacting its supply of lithium-ion batteries. The firm and its leadership were among those  sanctioned by the Beijing government October 10, for sales to Taipei. “This is an attempt to eliminate the leading American drone company and deepen the world’s dependence on Chinese drone suppliers,” Skydio CEO Adam Bry said in an October 30 statement.

The US has named four Chinese textile firms to the Uyghur blacklist for involvement in the forced labor regimes in China's western Uyghur region. The added firms are affiliates of the Esquel Group, a Hong Kong–based textile and apparel manufacturer. Esquel is the world's largest woven shirt maker, producing about 100 million shirts annually. 

Supply-chain finance is crucial for enabling global trade but remains inaccessible to many small businesses in developing economies, impeding their growth and participation in international commerce, contend Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Makhtar Diop in an article published by Project Syndicate October 23. Despite the global value of supply-chain finance reaching $2.3 trillion, “most businesses in developing countries remain on the sidelines,” hindered by weak legal frameworks, high costs, and limited infrastructure.

Executive Order 14114, issued by President Biden on December 22, 2023, amends E.O. 14068 to ban the importation of certain seafood and diamonds originating from the Russian Federation. The order mandates that the Department of Homeland Security (with the Treasury's concurrence) implement data collection for enforcing these prohibitions. Filed on: 10/21/2024 at 8:45 am Scheduled Pub. Date: 10/22/2024 FR Document: 2024-24341 PDF 9 Pages (126 KB) …

For the 29th time, the United States is asking Mexico to review whether workers at a Mexican facility are being denied their rights. The request, under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s rapid response labor mechanism, asks for a review ofwhether workers at Odisa Concrete Equipment SA de CV, in Hidalgo, Mexico, are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released operational statistics Tuesday for Fiscal Year 2024, including September 2024’s monthly operational update. CBP monthly reporting can be viewed …