China announced requirements for importing U.S. avocados, according to an unofficial translation of an April 26 notice from the country’s General Administration of Customs. The notice contains new phytosanitary requirements for the imports, which took effect April 26.
Exports to China
Eight House Republicans have joined to introduce a bill that would require the U.S. trade representative to submit a report to Congress on how World Trade Organization agreements will be fully implemented. In a press release announcing the bill's introduction on April 24, Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., said: “For too long the United States, and the world, has turned a blind eye to much of China’s unfair practices in business and trade, and it has been the American producer and consumer who has paid the price. It’s time the United States and the global community assert their rights under WTO rules to hold China accountable for its behavior on the world stage and ensure a level playing field for all.” He said his bill would prevent China and other high-income nations from receiving special and differential treatment as developing nations. However, under current WTO rules, countries must willingly give up developing nation status; there is no way to force them to leave that status.
Export controls and trade restrictions are becoming an increasing part of U.S.-China competition despite little clarity about whether they will work in the long term, trade experts said. The measures also seem to lack a clear focus within both the U.S. government and China, with officials disagreeing on how best to impose restrictions, the experts said.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of April 24 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
Australia recently announced a US$70 million support program to help agricultural and seafood exporters reach international markets during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service report released April 22. The program will benefit exporters in the country’s red meat, dairy, horticulture and seafood sectors that ship “high-value perishable” products, the USDA said. The program will help exporters ship to China, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates but does not include support for goods shipped by sea, the report said. The list of countries may be expanded.
China is examining ways to speed up purchases of U.S. agricultural goods, including a potential purchase of 10 million tons of U.S. soybeans for state reserves, according to an April 23 Bloomberg report. China, which is hoping to reach its commitments under the phase one trade deal with the U.S., is also considering buying as much as 20 million tons of U.S. corn, the report said, which would surpass the country's corn import quota. Discussions surrounding those purchases are still ongoing, the Bloomberg report said, and some Chinese officials have raised doubts about whether China should be helping U.S.’s agricultural sector due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on China’s own economy. Despite expectations that the virus will impact China’s ability to purchase U.S. agricultural goods (see 2002120043), the Trump administration said it expects China to begin fulfilling its commitments by this summer (see 2003040029), and has touted the progress made toward those purchases (see 2003240041).
Canada said earlier this week that it intends to ask for World Trade Organization permission to retaliate for the U.S. countervailing measures on supercalendered paper that ended in 2018 but were ruled out of bounds in February 2020 by the WTO appellate body (see 2002060059). Supercalendered paper is glossy paper used in advertising inserts, catalogs and magazines. The U.S. had levied 20.18% and 17.87% countervailing duties on two Canadian companies in 2015.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for April 13-17 in case you missed them.
The U.S. has asked China to amend its increased export control inspections that are causing delays of medical supply shipments (see 2004160035, 2004150034 and 2004130014), according to a State Department spokesperson. “We appreciate the efforts to ensure quality control. But we do not want this to serve as an obstacle for the timely export of important supplies,” the spokesperson said in an April 17 statement. The spokesperson added that the U.S. has “raised these concerns” with China and requested that it “revise its new requirements to allow the expeditious export of vital [personal protective equipment] to the United States.” The U.S. is working “closely” with U.S. companies exporting medical supplies from China to help them “understand the new regulations and raise concerns about held-up shipments,” the spokesperson said. The request was first reported by Reuters.
The Council on Foreign Relations said that U.S., European and Japanese pushback over Made in China 2025, at least the part on high performance medical devices, may ebb after the coronavirus pandemic has passed -- because other countries will want to implement their own versions. “If any country knows a little bit about reducing industrial dependence on the rest of the world through conscious industrial choices, that would be China,” said Brad Stetser, a CFR senior fellow for international economics, during a webinar April 16. He said China is displacing imported semiconductors, but has been less successful in displacing imported aircraft.