China and Mauritius signed a trade deal that will eliminate or reduce tariffs on a range of products and increase “economic cooperation,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in an Oct. 17 press release, according to an unofficial translation. The deal will eliminate certain tariffs, reduce others below 15 percent and will include agreements on rules of origin, trade remedies, technical barriers to trade and "sanitary and phytosanitary issues," China said. The agreement will also expand Chinese exports of steel, tariffs and other “light industrial products” while allowing more sugar imports from Mauritius.
Two stalwart Republican supporters of the president joined with three Democratic senators to say that Congress is united in a push to levy sanctions on Turkey for its invasion of Syria.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson will take a second European Union exit deal to the U.K. Parliament on Oct. 19, after coming to new terms with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on an agreement on Brexit. Under the deal, Northern Ireland will formally remain part of the U.K. customs territory, but will also be an entry point into the EU customs zone with no tariffs on goods entering from Ireland and a vote in four years on whether to keep the arrangement in place, according to a BBC report.
Co-chairs of the Department of Homeland Security Information and Communications Technology Supply Chain Risk Management Task Force urged House Homeland Security Committee members to consider enacting new liability protections and incentives to encourage companies and foreign governments to share information on threats to the supply chain. Committee leaders appeared interested, during an Oct. 16 hearing, in further protections. They invoked perceived supply-chain threats posed by Kaspersky Lab and Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers Huawei and ZTE.
Although Trump administration officials have expressed willingness to mediate the Japan-South Korea trade dispute, trade experts suggested the administration -- and members of Congress -- are not currently focused on intervening.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Turkey’s government and issued three general licenses as Congress called for harsher restrictions on Turkey for its military activities in Syria (see 1910140005). OFAC’s sanctions -- issued after President Donald Trump announced an executive order granting the Treasury and State departments new power to sanction Turkey -- target Turkey’s defense ministry, energy ministry, defense minister (Hulusi Akar), energy minister (Fatih Donmez) and interior minister (Suleyman Soylu). Treasury said more sanctions may be coming.
President Donald Trump announced a "very substantial phase 1" deal in the Oval Office Oct. 11, saying the Chinese and American negotiators came to a deal on intellectual property, financial services and agricultural sales. The president said China will buy as much as $40 billion to $50 billion worth of American commodities. He also said good progress had been made on issues around technology transfer from American companies to Chinese partners.
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order giving the Treasury Department “very significant” new sanctions authorities to target the Turkish government, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Oct. 11. The authorities will include primary sanctions and secondary sanctions, Mnuchin said, but stressed the U.S. is not yet activating the sanctions. “We are putting financial institutions on notice that they should be careful, and that there could be sanctions,” Mnuchin said. “Again, there are no sanctions at this time, but this will be the broadest executive authorities delegated to us.”
President Donald Trump said he will soon authorize “powerful” sanctions against Turkey for its recent military actions in Syria. The sanctions will target former and current Turkish government officials and anyone contributing to Turkey’s actions, Trump said, adding that the U.S. will also “immediately stop” negotiating a trade deal with Turkey.
Business and labor leaders and government insider panelists agreed that the U.S.-China trade war will be difficult to unravel, but disagreed on how quickly Democrats could -- or should -- resolve outstanding issues on the NAFTA rewrite. The trade panel Oct. 10, hosted by Fiscal Note, included Clete Willems, former White House deputy assistant to the president for international economics, who said that although it pained him to say it, "The political conditions in both countries are just not conducive to the big deal."