With new data out about exports to China, economist Chad Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics says that China only bought 60% of the goods it promised, and about 57% of all it promised, when services are included. In all, China said it would buy $502.4 billion from U.S. sources in 2020 and 2021.
The Census Bureau won't follow through with a rule to eliminate some export reporting requirements for shipments to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (see 2009160033 and 2112140052), saying it couldn’t find an alternative data source to replace the information that would no longer have been submitted by exporters. The decision, released Feb. 3, came after months of both interagency and public discussions, including heavy lobbying from parts of the U.S. shipping industry, which argued the requirements were costly, burdensome and unfair.
Although concluding negotiations on subsidies that contribute to overfishing may seem like a long shot, since 21 years has not been long enough to reach agreement, World Trade Organization Deputy Director-General Angela Ellard said there is an eagerness among many member country delegations to get it done. She acknowledged that developing countries' desire to claim "special and differential treatment" under the body's rules to curb overfishing does cause dissension. But, she said, "it's important to show we can do this."
The General Department of Vietnam Customs directed its local branches to strictly inspect and supervise import entries of rice that are then exported or reexported to other markets, to prevent origin fraud, the state-run CustomsNews said Jan. 29. The customs agency issued such instructions over fears that the rice imports are being illegally labeled and transshipped for rice products with HS codes 1006.20, 1006.30 and 1006.40.90. The GDVC will require local customs units to identify the origin for the rice products with these HS codes using measures that include customs officers conducting a physical inspection of the rice shipments, the report said. Other measures to be used for these efforts include the strengthening of the information collection, which entails a review of the rice export and import activities in the area and analysis of the information used to identify risks of origin fraud or illicit transshipment, the report said.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis is conducting a mandatory survey on U.S. direct investment abroad to help measure the impact of the investments on the American and foreign economies, the agency said Jan. 27. BEA will contact entities that are required to respond to the survey, and a report from each entity covering its fiscal year ending during the previous calendar year is due by May 31. U.S. lawmakers are considering a new screening regime to better scrutinize outbound investments (see 2201140038).
The threat of a California port surcharge meant to incentivize the movement of dwelling containers has proved very successful at clearing cargo off docks, Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said during a Jan. 19 House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing. He said the fee threat has substantially helped trade flows at both Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, which announced the charge in October but has postponed enforcing it each month since (see 2201140055). “That fee has never been implemented and we've not collected a dime, but incredible progress has been made to move cargo off our docks,” Seroka said.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing to list five tryptamine hallucinogens -- 4-OH-DiPT, 5-MeO-AMT, 5-MeO-MiPT, 5-MeO-DET and DiPT -- under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, it said in a notice released Jan. 13. “If finalized, this action would impose the regulatory controls and administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions applicable to schedule I controlled substances on persons who handle (manufacture, distribute, reverse distribute, import, export, engage in research, conduct instructional activities or chemical analysis with, or possess), or propose to handle these five specific controlled substances.” Comments are due by Feb. 14.
The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and that committee's chairman, as well as the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, urged the deputy U.S. trade representative to press Mexico and Canada on market access issues for the energy and agricultural sectors, and the senators also complained about barriers for the telecom, pharmaceutical and television industries in either Mexico or Canada. Deputy USTR Jayme White is meeting with Canadian and Mexican counterparts this week.
Retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. cost exporters more than $27 billion from mid-2018 to the end of 2019, with sales to China accounting for about 95% of the losses, USDA said in a new report this month. Although the phase one U.S.-China trade deal and China’s tariff exemption programs helped to “significantly” rebound some U.S. exports to the country, the agency said U.S. market share still remained below pre-retaliatory tariffs levels one year after the deal.
The Bureau of Industry and Security again renewed its temporary export control on certain artificial intelligence software as it prepares to make the classification permanent, BIS said in a notice. The temporary control -- first issued in January 2020 (see 2001030024), extended last year (see 2101050018) and renewed for a second time this week -- placed unilateral restrictions on geospatial imagery software by adding it to the 0Y521 Temporary Export Control Classification Numbers Series. The latest one-year renewal is effective Jan. 6.