Over the year since the European Union and the U.S. agreed to pursue trade talks, the two sides "have actually made some decent progress" on regulatory cooperation in pharmaceuticals and medical devices, but "where we are stuck is on industrial tariffs," said Sabine Weyand, director general for trade at the European Commission.
The supply chain security executive order issued in May is directly related to Huawei, Akin Gump lawyers said, and will likely restrict Huawei from selling certain items if those items impact U.S. national security. The executive order (see 1905160072) requires the Commerce Department to issue regulations within 150 days (that is, by Oct. 14) and bars "transactions involving information and communications technology [ICT] or services" without a broad interagency review.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is giving $100 million to 48 trade associations and organizations in an effort to help U.S. agriculture exporters find new markets, the USDA said in a July 19 press release. Representatives from the U.S. agricultural industry have repeatedly told Congress that the U.S. trade war with China and the delay in ratifying the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement are significantly hurting U.S. exports. Some fear they will not be able to regain certain export markets in China. Others said trade mitigation programs are not the solution (see 1905290041).
China is reducing restrictions on foreign market access in certain sectors, including in the “services,” agricultural, mining and manufacturing sectors, according to a July 17 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. China is reducing the number of sectors with restrictions from “48 to 40 on a national basis and from 45 to 37 in the case of businesses operating within one of the mainland’s Pilot Free Trade Zones,” the report said. The changes were outlined in regulations issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a “network of front companies and agents involved” in procuring enriched uranium for Iran’s nuclear program, Treasury said in a July 18 press release. The entities and people are based in Iran, China and Belgium and worked as a “procurement network” for Iran’s Centrifuge Technology Company, which produces centrifuges in facilities belonging to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Treasury said.
Commerce plans to eliminate license exceptions for civil end-users from the Export Administration Regulations, according to an alert from Akin Gump. Commerce did not say when the changes would take effect, the alert said, but U.S. companies should “prepare for the possibility that currently exempted activities may soon require specific licenses” from the Bureau of Industry and Security. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs recently completed a review of the changes, according to a notice on the OIRA website.
American farmers are losing market share in Japan as Canada and Australia get the benefit of lower tariffs through the Trans-Pacific Partnership and European producers also get benefits through their region's free trade agreement with Japan.
Three trade experts discussing the role of technology in the U.S.-China trade war were split over how and when the two nations will reach a trade deal, with two saying they expect a deal soon and one saying China is willing to wait until a potentially new administration in 2020. But the experts, speaking July 18 during a panel at the Brookings Institution, agreed on one point: If there is a deal, the ban on Huawei Technologies will be lifted.
China believes that trade “frictions” with the U.S. “should be resolved through dialogue and consultation,” a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson said on July 17. He was asked about President Donald Trump’s July 16 Cabinet meeting remarks that the U.S. has a “long way to go” before reaching a trade deal with China and can still impose the threatened List 4 Section 301 tariffs on $325 billion worth of Chinese goods “if we want.” If the U.S. “thinks there is still a long way to go before a deal is concluded, well, as the Chinese saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” the spokesperson said. “No matter how long the way is, as long as you step forward, you will eventually reach the destination.” In the face of the U.S. threat to impose the List 4 duties, “China will firmly defend its own interests,” the spokesperson said. “If the U.S. does impose new tariffs, that will indeed set new obstacles for the trade talks. There will be an even longer way to go before reaching a deal.”