The Chinese “irreversibly accelerated” their Made in China 2025 industrial program since the summer, taking a sharp protectionist turn as the U.S.-China trade war persisted with no negotiated breakthrough, Photronics CEO Peter Kirlin said on a fiscal Q4 call Dec. 11. “They ain't turning back,” said Kirlin, whose company drew more than half its Q4 revenue from the photomasks it supplied Chinese panel makers, produced at Photronics factories throughout Asia, including in Xiamen and Hefei, China.
Exports to China
In the Dec. 11 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Dec. 11 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Dec. 2-6 in case you missed them.
In the Dec. 10 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Hong Kong Customs recently seized about $6.4 million worth of smuggled frozen meat en route to China, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report released Dec. 6. Customs authorities seized the shipments, which weighed 540 metric tons, in Hong Kong waters after they were smuggled onto four fishing boats off of a Hong Kong pier, the report said. The fishing boats did not have refrigeration facilities, USDA said, and the meat was composed of “high-value beef products” from “various countries,” including the U.S. and Europe. The agency called it the “largest detection of smuggled meats both in terms of value and volume in the past decade.” The meats included cuts of beef such as “shanks, ribs” and “round,” but no pork.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said he doesn't expect the Dec. 15 round of tariffs on consumer goods from China to go into effect then, according to Bloomberg News.“I do not believe those will be implemented and I think we may see some backing away,” Purdue said at a conference in Indianapolis on Dec. 9.
China hopes to reach a trade agreement with the U.S. “as soon as possible,” China said during a Dec. 9 press conference, adding that it plans to reduce import tariffs on industrial goods as part of a series of “guiding opinions” released by the State Council.
Telefonaktiebtolaget LM Ericsson, a multinational telecommunications company based in Sweden, was fined more than $1 billion for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Justice Department said in a Dec. 6 press release. The penalty, stemming from a scheme to bribe government officials and falsify records, includes more than $520 million in criminal penalties and a $540 million penalty owed to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The U.S. and Vietnam signed a Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement meant to “further strengthen bilateral cooperation on security and the facilitation of lawful trade,” CBP said in an emailed Dec. 9 news release. “This agreement is a critical step forward in our economic and security partnership with Vietnam,” CBP Deputy Assistant Commissioner for International Affairs Erik Moncayo said. “The CMAA will enable the U.S. and Vietnam to more effectively combat terrorism and transnational crime while facilitating increasing volumes of lawful commerce.” The U.S. now has CMAAs with 82 countries, it said. In recent months, Vietnam has been trying to crack down on country of origin fraud and transshipment schemes that have become especially more frequent since the ramping up of U.S.-China trade tensions (see 1908280043).