The Trump administration is prioritizing efforts surrounding its export controls, investment screening and diplomacy to restrict China from acquiring sensitive dual-use technologies, a senior State Department official said. The official, speaking to reporters March 12, said China has ramped up technology theft and said companies and research institutions should be cautious of any attempts by Chinese companies to divert their products for military end-use, which are often masked in “incentives and inducements.”
Exports to China
China’s Guangzhou customs operation recently introduced new measures for online customs facilitation by “administrative counterparts” as the coronavirus outbreak continues, according to a March 13 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The counterparts may apply for “various” customs approvals online and can use the district’s “Internet-plus Customs special government service platform” to process 15 service items, including “scientific research equipment sharing, and cargo manifest amendment and withdrawal,” the report said. They may also use the agency’s WeChat platform to complete other customs service applications.
A top Commerce Department official tempered fears that the U.S. wants to stifle industry competitiveness (see 2003100044 and 2002180060) as it considers further restricting exports to Huawei and China, saying that is not the administration's goal. “Why would you restrict a U.S. company if you're only going to be enabling their competitor?” said Rich Ashooh, Commerce’s assistant secretary for export administration. “That’s a very important principle to engage in.”
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of March 13 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
China introduced new customs measures to reduce clearance costs of imports and exports amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to a March 12 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The changes, introduced March 10, mean some imports that arrived at ports before the outbreak, and other imports that were not declared in time due to logistical challenges, will benefit from reductions or exemptions in delayed declaration fees, China said. In addition, companies who cannot pay import taxes on time can submit an application to the customs authority with a “proposed tax repayment schedule,” the report said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security added 24 entities to its Entity List and revised five existing entries, the agency said in a notice. The new entries include companies in China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, the notice said, and revised entries for entities in France, Iran, Lebanon, Singapore and the United Kingdom. The new entries include China-based Wuhan IRCEN Technology, as well as several other companies in Iran and Pakistan that BIS said threaten U.S. national security. The changes take effect March 16, but all shipments now requiring a license as a result of this rule that were on dock for loading or aboard a carrier to a port as of that date may proceed to their destinations under the previous eligibility, BIS said.
The State Department said the top five exporting and importing countries of “pseudoephedrine and ephedrine” have cooperated with the U.S. or taken steps to comply with the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, according to a notice in the Federal Register. The countries include France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, China, South Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
China’s Commerce Ministry said the coronavirus pandemic will have an “unavoidable” impact on its supply chains and the global economy but reassured industry that the changes will not be permanent. “Global economic and trade growth is under pressure. The resumption of production and new orders by Chinese foreign trade companies will also be affected,” a ministry official said, according to an unofficial translation of transcript of a March 12 press conference. “The supply chain of the global industrial chain will be disrupted to some extent.”
China said it does not think the coronavirus outbreak will cause supply chains to leave the country and have a sustained impact on China’s supply chain base, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said during a March 11 press conference. “The COVID-19 epidemic only affects the Chinese economy in a temporary and limited manner,” the spokesperson said. He added that industry “still has confidence in China's economic prospects and the resilience of our supply and industrial chains,” and said China hasn’t “seen any major movement of supply and industrial chains from China to other countries due to the epidemic.”
China will lift restrictions on imports of certain U.S. nectarines, China’s General Administration of Customs said in a March 4 notice, according to an unofficial translation. China said it will allow nectarines (see 2003100045) that meet certain “quarantine requirements” and published phytosanitary requirements for those imports.