An annual report on trade agreements issued by the European Commission this week shows the EU has removed 140 barriers to EU exports in more than 40 countries over the last five years, unlocking more than $6 billion worth of EU exports in 2023 alone, the commission said. But it also said foreign trade barriers “have been on the rise,” adding that import local content requirements, “discriminatory practices” and import substitution “are becoming the industrial policy instrument of choice for some of our partners.”
Exports to China
As EU member states prepare to vote this week on new tariffs for Chinese electric vehicles, a German trade official and auto industry representative said they believe the EU and China can still reach a “political” agreement to work through their issues and avoid the punitive duties, which they say would harm EU consumers and European car manufacturers that have factories in China.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned several China-based companies, a person in Iran and others for helping to move weapons, dual-use items or commercial goods in support of the Houthis, the Yemen-based group that the U.S. designated as a terrorist organization in January (see 2401170025).
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The Nov. 5 presidential election could have a significant impact on how the U.S. works with the EU to develop export controls for China, according to a new report released last week by the Washington, D.C.-based American-German Institute.
Covington announced last week that it opened a trade controls enforcement practice group to represent clients in sanctions and export controls investigations. The practice group combines the firm's trade controls regulatory practice and its white collar defense and investigations practice and will house teams in China, the EU, the U.K. and the U.S. Eric Sandberg-Zakian, a sanctions and export controls partner based in Washington, D.C., will head the practice group, Covington said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is expanding its Validated End User program to include a new export authorization for data centers, which could allow certain preapproved data facilities to more quickly obtain advanced semiconductors and other U.S.-controlled items with artificial intelligence uses.
With de minimis imports to the EU climbing to about $8.5 billion worth of goods from January to August this year, the European Commission is considering either changing its de minimis threshold or tackling the surge of Chinese exports in this channel in another way, the South China Morning Post reported from Brussels. That value of de minimis imports increased 61% compared with two years earlier, the newspaper said.
Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., introduced bills last week aimed at curbing U.S. investment in China.
A hearing about the Time to Choose Act, a bipartisan bill that would ban consultants and other service providers from working both with the U.S. government and Chinese-owned companies, Senate Homeland Security Committee ranking member Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he agreed with a witness who said it could create a slippery slope.