Taiwan logged more than $40 billion in exports in a month for the first time, capitalizing on surging demand for semiconductors and metals, data from the Ministry of Finance showed, Bloomberg reported Nov. 8. In October, overseas shipments jumped 24.6% year on year, while imports rose 37.2% to $34 billion, narrowing the trade balance to $6.1 billion. The finance ministry pegged strong demand for new technologies, the start of the peak holiday buying season and boosted raw material prices as the main factors behind the export surge, Bloomberg said. The ministry predicts momentum will continue through the end of the year.
Bernd Lange, chair of the European Union parliament's committee on trade, said that though it may be tricky to do so -- given that the EU and other countries have different ways of encouraging cleaner industry -- the EU's proposed carbon border adjustment measure should not be a way to just hike tariffs. "We have to avoid trade wars," he said to reporters in Washington Nov. 4. He said if another country does not have a cap and trade system and doesn't have a price on carbon, that doesn't mean they don't have climate change measures. "So we need to find equivalencies," he said.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. began another national security investigation into Beijing’s Wise Road Capital's proposed acquisition of South Korea's Magnachip Semiconductor Corporation after the companies were granted a request to refile with the committee in September (see 2109160037). CFIUS’s new investigation period began in late October and is expected to be completed by Dec. 13, Magnachip said in an Oct. 29 Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The U.S. was expected to reject the transaction before Magnachip requested to refile. CFIUS’s intervention in the deal, which wasn’t voluntarily notified to the committee, could set a new precedent for investment reviews and lead to more extraterritorial screening by U.S. trading partners (see 2110140035).
New draft text of Congress’ Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation bill includes a tax credit to incentivize advanced semiconductor manufacturing, which would help “strengthen” U.S. supply chains, the Semiconductor Industry Association said Oct. 28. The incentive, included in the reconciliation package released by congressional Democrats Oct. 28, would create an investment tax credit of up to 25% for certain “advanced manufacturing facilities” and a tax credit for certain “eligible components.” The credit would specifically be available for “property for the manufacturing of semiconductors and semiconductor tooling equipment” that begins construction before 2027. The package hasn’t yet received a vote.
The U.S. should continue to impose export controls on advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment and machinery but be careful about restricting sales of finished semiconductor products to China, Chinese economics and technology policy experts said. Controls on finished products may risk hurting U.S. semiconductor exporters and would not stop China from importing those goods elsewhere, they said.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for Oct. 18-22 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
A U.S.-based technology company “likely” violated U.S. export controls against Huawei for more than a year but hasn't yet faced penalties by the Bureau of Industry and Security, Republican staff on the Senate Commerce Committee said Oct. 26. The committee’s minority staff said Seagate Technology likely continued shipping hard disk drives to Huawei after BIS amended its foreign direct product rule last year, which imposed controls on goods that are the direct product of certain technology or software subject to the Export Administration Regulations (see 2005150058 and 2008170029).
The Commerce Department needs to address several “urgent shortcomings” in its export control policies toward China (see 2110180016) and impose stricter export restrictions and license denials for sensitive goods and suppliers of Chinese military companies, a group of Republican lawmakers said in a letter to Secretary Gina Raimondo. The 17 Republicans, all members of the House’s China Task Force, also said the Bureau of Industry and Security should commit to a timeline for releasing more emerging and foundational technology controls and issue “appropriate” restrictions on fundamental research and open-source technology platforms.
Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., opened up a discussion on a recent report on targeted decoupling based on risk, with a focus on artificial intelligence, at a virtual event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Oct. 22. Hill said the discussion was "long overdue," and that China's direction is "squarely in conflict with the global order, balance of power in East Asia, and the continued open, market-based trading system."
The House Foreign Affairs Committee's release of export licensing information for Huawei and China’s chipmaker SMIC (see 2110210073) may not present an accurate picture of licensing approvals and may mislead industry, the Commerce Department said Oct. 22. Although the agency approved more than a combined $100 billion worth of export licenses for shipments to Huawei and SMIC from November 2020 through April, the statistics didn’t reflect pending applications set to be denied, which would have significantly lowered the percentage of approved applications for both companies.