China this week launched an antidumping duty investigation on imports of pork and pork byproducts from the EU after receiving a request for the probe by the China Animal Husbandry Association, according to an unofficial translation of a Chinese Ministry of Commerce notice. The investigation will cover the period Jan. 1, 2023, through Dec. 31, 2023, and is scheduled to be completed by June 17, 2025, but may be extended. China said it will carry out the investigation “in accordance with the law, fully protect the rights of all stakeholders, and make an objective and fair ruling based on the investigation results.” The announcement came days after the EU said it would set new countervailing duties on Chinese electric vehicles (see 2406120008).
Exports to China
The Bureau of Industry and Security is hoping to publish a rule this summer that would again update or clarify how export controls apply to releases of technology for standards setting or development in standards organizations, said Hillary Hess, director of the BIS regulatory policy division.
A new strategy by the Bureau of Industry and Security to add a set of addresses -- instead of company names -- to the Entity List could lead to screening challenges for exporters, industry officials told the agency this week.
An Oregon-based forwarding company will face a three-year export denial order after it failed to adhere to a 2021 settlement agreement with the Bureau of Industry and Security and continued to violate U.S. export regulations.
The House of Representatives last week approved a proposal that would require the administration to report to Congress on how proceeds from illicit Iranian oil exports are funding Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Tehran’s terrorist proxies.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned several people and entities, along with one vessel, for helping to procure weapons for the Iran-backed Houthis or for shipping commodities to fund the Yemen-based group. The designations target procurement officers and companies in China along with others in Oman, Cameroon and the United Arab Emirates.
Canadian and German national Klaus Pflugbeil, who lives in China, pleaded guilty June 13 to conspiring to steal the trade secrets of an unnamed U.S.-based electric vehicle company to build his own company in China, DOJ announced. He faces a maximum 10-year prison stint following sentencing on Oct. 9.
DOJ’s recent decision not to prosecute a biochemical company that was part of an illegal export scheme involving China (see 2406040069 and 2405220037) underscores the importance of companies being “particularly aggressive” about deciding whether to submit an early voluntary disclosure to the U.S. government, McGuire Woods said in a client alert. The firm noted that DOJ decided not to prosecute the company, MilliporeSigma, “because of its prompt disclosure soon after it detected suspicious activity” -- the company disclosed the issue one week after hiring an outside lawyer. “Companies that wait too long to disclose or affirmatively choose not to file voluntary self-disclosures are at greater risk of being prosecuted or forfeiting valuable cooperation credit,” the firm said.
The Group of Seven (G7) nations agreed last week at their summit in Apulia, Italy, to use interest from frozen Russian assets to finance about $50 billion in loans to Ukraine.
The next administration should look to raise criminal penalties for trade theft, broaden the scope of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and refocus its export controls on military technologies to better compete with China, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said this week. ITIF also said the U.S. should push for a new “techno-economic alliance” of key trading partners and develop a new multilateral export control regime focused on semiconductors and artificial intelligence.