Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick spoke with Bureau of Industry and Security employees during a town hall meeting Aug. 19, where he discussed their "vital work supporting Trump’s America First Trade Policy, which boosts U.S. industry, secures supply chains, and protects American tech from foreign exploitation," the agency said in a social media post. "BIS enforces export controls, closes loopholes, and keeps innovation domestic, driving thriving industries and national security."
House Select Committee on China ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., urged the Trump administration Aug. 19 to continue sanctioning China for buying Iranian oil.
Michael Kratsios, director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, suggested this week that the U.S. is against imposing export controls on open-weight AI models.
Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., unveiled a “discussion draft” bill July 31 that could eliminate the requirement that China’s ByteDance sell TikTok or face a U.S. ban on the popular social media application.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian Supreme Federal Court judge that it said has ordered "arbitrary pre-trial detentions" and suppressed freedom of expression.
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said July 28 on social media that he’s “alarmed” that the Trump administration is lifting sanctions on “key people linked to Burma’s military regime,” referring to the country now known as Myanmar.
The president of Indonesia confirmed to reporters in Jakarta that he agreed to 19% tariffs, in exchange for buying more wheat, soybeans, fuel and Boeing aircraft.
The Council of the European Union on July 15 sanctioned Russian individuals and entities for committing human rights abuses and engaging in destabilizing actions abroad through foreign information manipulation.
The chief negotiator for the EU told reporters in Brussels July 14 that his team had thought "we are very close to an agreement," though there were still "quite large gaps" on what the U.S. was offering and what the EU could accept on goods subject to national security tariffs, such as cars and steel, and, perhaps in the future, pharmaceuticals.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, on Bloomberg Television on June 30, didn't predict how many deals would be announced with the 18 largest trading partners of the U.S. before July 9. However, he said that countries "are coming in with offers" that long-time staff negotiators "can't believe," because they're so good.