The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is soliciting comments on China's compliance with its World Trade Organization obligations. Comments and requests to testify at an Oct. 4 public hearing are due by 11:59 p.m. Sept. 20. The hearing begins at 9:30 a.m. Comments may be submitted at regulations.gov using Docket Number USTR–2023-0008.
Exports to China
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
China’s recently imposed export controls on gallium and germanium (see 2307050018) -- two metals used to produce semiconductors -- were for legitimate national security reasons, Beijing said this week, rebuking comments from U.S. officials and lawmakers who have said the restrictions have no justification (see 2307060053). In an Aug. 9 post on Chinese social media site Weixin, the National Security Ministry said the country's national security concerns stem from an incident in 2009, when an employee working for a global mining company in China tried to access “detailed technical analysis of dozens of Chinese iron and steel enterprises and accurate parameters of each production process.”
China is not convinced that the U.S. is only trying to derisk, not decouple, from China’s economy, said Ryan Hass, a former National Security Council official. He said Beijing is wary of the growing number of U.S. sanctions and trade restrictions and doesn’t believe the Biden administration is acting in “good faith,” which risks further worsening tensions.
Brazil and Canada recently announced antidumping and countervailing duty actions and decisions on certain products from mainland China, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Aug. 11.
Hong Kong-based apparel company Chagji Esquel Textile (CJE) and the Commerce Department filed a joint stipulation of dismissal on Aug. 11 in CJE's suit challenging its placement on the Entity List. The parties most recently filed a joint status report in June as they discussed the conditions related to the End-User Review Committee's July 2021 decision to drop the company from the Entity List (Changji Esquel Textile Co. v. Gina M. Raimondo, D.D.C. # 21-01798).
Congress needs to enact stronger export controls legislation to complement the Biden administration’s outbound investment restrictions against China unveiled last week (see 2308090066 and 2308100045), said House Foreign Affairs Indo-Pacific Subcommittee Chairwoman Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif. Kim said she’s “glad” the administration is “acting to restrict U.S. investment of critical technologies developed in China,” and she said the measure “should not be treated as a silver bullet.”
The U.S. may run into challenges enforcing aspects of its new outbound investment restrictions on China, especially for intercompany transfers and investments, Sarah Bauerle Danzman, a former State Department official, said during a webinar hosted by the Center for a New American Security last week. She said investors will likely need more guidance on the issue whenever the Treasury Department releases regulations for the regime.
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week expanded the scope of its nuclear-related export controls on China and Macau, saying the change was necessary to impose tighter license requirements on items that could “contribute to nuclear activities of concern.” The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also suspended a general license that had authorized exports of certain nuclear items for nuclear end uses in China.
China's Ministry of Commerce on Aug. 11 released a report covering "WTO Compliance of the United States." The report says China is concerned about U.S. policies and how they affect the World Trade Organization's rules-based trading system. A spokesperson for the ministry said China is using the report to call on the U.S. to abide by its commitments to the trade body, according to an unofficial translation.