The European Commission on Oct. 4 officially launched a countervailing duty investigation on electric vehicle batteries from China. The investigation, previewed in September by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (see 2309140009), will focus on whether the battery value chains in China benefit from "illegal subsidization," and, if so, whether these subsidies cause or threaten economic injury to EU manufacturers, the commission said. If both are true, the commission said, it will determine if it is in the bloc's interest to remedy the subsidies via duties. The commission said that, per World Trade Organization rules, it carried out pre-initiation consultations with the Chinese government. The commission said the investigation will take a maximum of 13 months, and anti-subsidy duties may be taken nine months after initiation.
Exports to China
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The U.S. this week sanctioned a China-based network of companies and people involved in manufacturing and distributing “ton quantities” of fentanyl, methamphetamine and MDMA precursors. The designations also target two entities and one person based in Canada.
Companies should review existing and prospective agreements for potential liability under China's anti-foreign sanctions law, Evan Chuck of Crowell & Moring advised during a Practising Law Institute webinar on Sept. 26.
The EU has received assurances that Beijing will grant export licenses for shipments of gallium and germanium to European businesses despite the restrictions China placed on exports of the two metals in August (see 2307050018), European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said this week. Dombrovskis also said the bloc is looking to sanction additional Chinese firms that may be skirting restrictions against Russia and is hoping to ensure its upcoming supply chain due diligence regulations don’t impose excessive compliance burdens on EU companies.
LONDON -- The State Department hasn’t yet seen much participation in its open general license pilot program despite releasing the licenses more than a year ago, said Catherine Hamilton, the licensing director for the agency’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Hamilton said the licenses specifically aren’t “really being used in the U.K. as we had envisioned.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative canceled two public hearings on China's and Russia's compliance with World Trade Organization commitments, the agency announced this week. USTR said it received 22 comments and three requests to participate in the China-focused hearing, which "subsequently were withdrawn," and the agency canceled the meeting as a result. USTR also canceled its Russia-focused hearing after receiving two comments and one request to participate in the hearing, which also was withdrawn. The hearing on China had been scheduled to take place Oct. 4; the meeting on Russia, Oct. 12.
Russia has amassed over 150,000 surplus shipping containers due to the large increase in goods coming from China but a much lower number leaving the country, an analysis from German trading platform Container xChange found. The excess containers are causing headaches for Russian rail depots.
LONDON -- The Bureau of Industry and Security hopes to publish the final version of its Oct. 7 China chip controls in October, said Liz Abraham, senior adviser for international policy at BIS.
LONDON -- The U.K. has seen a spike in export license refusals for shipments destined to China and expects that trend to continue, said Rosemary Pratt, director of the U.K.’s Export Control Joint Unit. She also said her agency is undergoing several export control reform initiatives that it hopes see progress on in the coming year, including an effort to assess the effectiveness of its military end-use (MEU) controls and evaluate and control emerging technologies.