The Trump administration said it has secured, or soon will secure, commitments from Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to cooperate on export controls, investment restrictions and other economic-security-related trade measures.
The EU and Uzbekistan concluded their bilateral negotiations on market access to services and goods, which the EU touted as a "significant milestone in Uzbekistan's accession to the World Trade Organization," the European Commission announced. The bilateral trade deal includes Uzbekistan's commitments on "maximum tariff rates for import and export of goods" and the nation's concessions in services. The commitments will be "embodied in the future Protocol of Accession of Uzbekistan to the WTO," the commission said. The EU and Uzbekistan also signed the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement on Oct. 24, which boosts bilateral cooperation across trade and investment issues, the commission said.
Geopolitics, including sanctions and export controls, is increasingly becoming an agenda item for the corporate boardroom, according to professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. They said more companies need to build “a geopolitical calculus” into their business strategy, secure and diversify their supply chains to hedge against new trade restrictions, and guard against “adversarial capital,” such as investors “aligned with adversarial states.” Governments are “increasingly focused on protecting startups from such threats -- which underscores the importance of working with trusted partners and funds that understand the security implications of frontier technologies.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, has been working with the Treasury Department to sanction Colombia's President Gustavo Petro and his "associates and enablers" for their suspected role in drug trafficking, the lawmaker said late Oct. 22.
A former State Department analyst on export control and sanctions evasion under President Joe Biden and a former National Security Council director for China under President George W. Bush agreed that the Bureau of Industry and Security's 50% rule was not fully thought through before its announcement.
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The EU officially published in its Oct. 20 Official Journal the revised carbon border adjustment mechanism, which is expected to exempt 90% of European importers from the new rules (see 2509290011). The European Commission said this "marks the final step in the formal adoption process," allowing the bloc to soon require taxes on certain imports covered by the carbon duty. Traders must pay taxes beginning in 2026 (see 2310020037) and 2410170036).
The Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill Oct. 21 that would direct the Commerce Department to lead a review of challenges posed by Chinese foreign investment in the U.S. (see 2508010044).
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the top Democrat on a Russian secondary sanctions bill, said he's not discouraged that Senate Majority Leader John Thune is putting off a vote on the bill again. The bill has 85 sponsors in the Senate, and would give the president the ability to put up to 500% tariffs on the goods of countries that buy Russian fossil fuels; it also would expand sanctions on Russian officials.
The EU should expand export controls over advanced technology and impose new tariffs against China to counter Beijing’s sweeping export curbs on rare earths (see 2510090021), a major European think tank said this week.