The Export Control Reform Act may not result in significantly different controls on emerging technologies (see 1912130055) than what would have been proposed under the U.S.’s existing export control system, a former top Commerce Department official said. Eric Hirschhorn, former undersecretary for the Bureau of Industry and Security from 2010-2017, also said Commerce’s efforts to restrict sales of foundational technologies might be too late. “I have grave doubt whether the assignment to control emerging and foundational technologies will result in controls significantly different from what the existing system -- which operates fairly well -- would have produced,” Hirschhorn said in a Jan. 3 post for China Business Review.
Exports to China
China’s Foreign Ministry criticized a report released this week by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China that called for U.S. sanctions on Chinese officials, saying the commission has no “objectivity or credibility whatsoever.” The report, issued Jan. 8, also called for greater U.S. export controls on surveillance technologies being sent to China and urged the Trump administration to place more Chinese companies and agencies on the Commerce Department’s Entity List due to their involvement in human rights violations (see 2001080039).
China’s Department of Foreign Trade recently introduced policies to “increase support and guidance” for border trade and the tax environment, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council said in a Jan. 8 report. The policies include “improving the functions of border trade zones,” a value-added tax exemption and a simplification of the declaration process “for small-scale border trade exports on a trial basis,” the report said. The policies will also support the development of “new models of e-commerce suited to border trade,” HKTDC said.
Japan’s export restrictions on South Korea have had a minimal impact on the South Korean industry, a State Department official said during a Jan. 7 press conference. The official said that both Japan and South Korea are participating in “ongoing discussions” about the trade dispute (see 1912160011). “As far as I can tell, the impact, if any, on the South Korean industry has been limited to negligible,” the official said. Japan recently eased export controls against South Korea for one of the three chemicals it had imposed restrictions on, according to a December report from the Associated Press.
China’s Commerce Ministry recently issued a circular containing 30 policies aiming to improve the trade environment in the Hainan pilot free trade zone, according to a Jan. 8 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The policies will support “construction of ports importing drugs and biological products for the first time,” HKTDC said. They will also improve the shipping sector by allowing foreign ships to be “chartered for temporary transportation under specific conditions,” permitting “international ship management companies to engage in seafarer assignment service,” the report said.
The Trump administration should sanction Chinese officials and companies responsible for human rights violations against the country's Uighur population, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said in a Jan. 8 report. The U.S. should also place export controls on a wide range of emerging technologies, add more Chinese agencies to the Commerce Department’s Entity List and make these issues key components of trade negotiations with China, the report said.
Seko Logistics bought Air-City, a New York-based freight forwarder and cross-border e-commerce company, Seko said in a news release. The terms of the deal were not released but Seko said it was its largest acquisition ever. “Air-City will give us immediate depth in the growing westbound airfreight and cross-border ecommerce trade for goods going to China,” Seko CEO James Gagne said. “Air-City also gives us strategic airfreight volumes and expertise into China as the rising demand for US goods increases along with a rising middle class in China. We have also added strength to our U.S. import services with the all-important ‘Section 321’ and Type 86 entries for e-commerce capabilities that are so critical for cross-border ecommerce into the United States as well as a network of bonded warehouses in the United States.”
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he's been told it's going to take three or four days for six other Senate committees to clear the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement so that it can go to the floor for a vote. Whether it can come up the week of Jan. 21 will depend on whether the articles of impeachment have arrived by then, he noted.
The U.S. will impose further sanctions against Iran in response to its recent missile attacks on a U.S. military base in Iraq, President Donald Trump said Jan. 8. Trump called the measures “punishing economic sanctions,” which will “remain until Iran changes its behavior,” including abandoning its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Details of the sanctions were not immediately released.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Jan. 8 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):