U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai brought up China's nonmarket approach to trade, and how it causes "critical imbalances," according to a readout of her May 26 meeting with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.
Exports to China
U.S. exports of semiconductors to China fell by about $2.9 billion in 2022, “wiping out” growth the industry saw the year before, the U.S.-China Business Council said in a report this week. The decline was partly due to the Biden administration’s sweeping chip controls released in October (see 2210070049), the report said, adding that the “more frequent use of export controls over the last few years has led Chinese customers to deprioritize American products when there are viable domestic and third-country suppliers.”
DOJ’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit is investigating U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer for its activities in Mexico, the company disclosed in an SEC filing this month. Pfizer said the agency’s FCPA Unit sent an “informal request” in March “seeking documents relating to our operations in Mexico.” The company is “producing records pursuant to this request.” The probe comes after Pfizer in 2012 reached an agreement with DOJ to resolve FCPA violation charges and as the company handles requests from the FPCA unit for activities in China and Russia, according to its SEC filing.
The Commerce Department should amend several portions of its proposed guardrails on recipients of Chips Act funding, including measures that could prevent the U.S. chip industry from participating in international standards bodies or inhibit “routine” business activities, trade groups and technology companies said in comments released this week. Some said Commerce should also limit which companies qualify as “foreign entities of concern” and revise the rule’s proposed definition for “legacy semiconductor” to more closely align with export controls.
The U.S. should impose a range of new sanctions and other restrictions on Chinese companies with ties to human rights violations in the Xinjiang region, including by imposing financial sanctions on companies on the Entity List and introducing outbound investment restrictions, the House Select Committee on China said this week. The committee also said the U.S. and its allies need to better coordinate on a potential sanctions response -- and be ready to deploy those measures -- if China invades Taiwan.
The State Department needs to answer for media reports that it “held back” human rights sanctions and export controls on China following the U.S. discovery of a Chinese reconnaissance balloon in American airspace earlier this year (see 2302100072), said Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas. McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, cited a recent Reuters report that said the State Department was trying to “limit damage to the U.S.-China relationship” and pushed back on new trade restrictions.
China imposed inspection and quarantine requirements for imports of both cooked and cured pork products from France, the General Administration of Customs announced in a pair of notices, according to an unofficial translation. The covered products include edible boneless pork products, products that have pork as the main raw material and went through "effective curing and processing."
Republicans leaders this week criticized China's decision to ban certain sales from U.S. chip company Micron (see 2305220053), saying the move was politically driven and lacked evidence.
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The Ocean Shipping Reform Implementation Act, a follow-up bill to OSRA from original co-sponsors Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., and Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., passed 58-1 out of the House Transportation Committee May 23.