U.S. industry representatives criticized China’s Aug. 23 decision to impose retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. and called for the two sides to quickly reach a trade deal. The latest Chinese tariffs could lock U.S. companies out of China for “many years,” said Doug Barry, spokesman for the U.S.-China Business Council. Barry said U.S. companies are worried that China is finding other suppliers as the trade war continues, and the latest measures may only speed up the process. “More worrisome is the signal to everyone, everywhere, that the trade conflict is getting worse, not better,” Barry said. “So let’s not invest and let’s not buy.”
Vietnam "completed" its draft amendments to various export and import tariffs, which includes a change to the “regulations on preferential import tax rates for raw materials, supplies and components to manufacture” goods for the auto industry, Vietnam Customs' mouthpiece CustomsNews said in an Aug. 22 report. The regulations include a zero percent “preferential import tax rate” for “domestic raw materials, supplies and components that have not yet been produced in the period of 2019-2023,” the report said. The report also clarifies how companies can qualify for the lowered import tax rate.
China Criticizes US Restrictions on Huawei, Plans to Make Unreliable Entity List Announcement 'Soon'
China’s Ministry of Commerce repeated claims that it will retaliate against higher U.S. tariffs, said it opposed new U.S. measures against Huawei and plans to make an announcement involving its so-called unreliable entity list “soon,” spokesman Gao Feng said at an Aug. 22 press conference, according to an unofficial translation of a transcript from the briefing.
China will impose tariffs on about $75 billion worth of U.S. goods in retaliation for the coming 10 percent Section 301 tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese goods, China’s State Council said, according to an unofficial translation. China said it will impose either 10 percent or 5 percent tariffs on more than 5,000 U.S. products. The tariffs will be imposed in two separate batches on Sep. 1 and Dec. 15, China said.
Economic cooperation between China and the U.S. is “win-win in nature,” a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson said Aug. 21. “Our interests have become deeply intertwined.” He was responding to President Donald Trump's lengthy remarks at the White House accusing China of “ripping this country off for 25 years.” American companies do $700 billion in annual sales and make $50 billion in annual profit in China, the spokesperson said. “If one party has been ripping off the other, it would not have been possible to have the highly complementary, deeply integrated and mutually beneficial relationship that we have today.” China and the U.S. “stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation,” he said. “There is nothing to fear in having differences on trade.”
China is imposing “special safeguard measures” on eight Australian beef-related agricultural products, China’s General Administration of Customs said in an Aug. 17 notice, according to an unofficial translation. China said Australian beef imports on Aug. 15, under six tax codes, exceeded the quantity that can be imported in 2019. The country resumed taxing the imports under Most Favored Nation tariffs on Aug. 17.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dismissed the notion that the Trump administration has sent mixed messages on Huawei, saying the president’s plans have “been unambiguous.” Pompeo’s comments came days after Trump said the U.S. would not be extending a temporary general license for Huawei, followed by the Commerce Department extending the license for 90 days (see 1908190039).
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expects Canada's Parliament to continue progress on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement in the fall following October elections, he said in recently posted written responses to House Ways and Means Committee members following a June 19 hearing (see 1906190062). "The Trudeau government has begun necessary steps to ratify the USMCA in its Parliament and has stated that it plans to move forward on implementation in tandem with the United States," he said. "The Canadian Parliament has adjourned for the summer and is not expected to return before federal elections are held on October 21, 2019. We anticipate that Canada will take up the legislation once a new government is seated later this fall, and we are confident that the Parliament will vote in favor of the Agreement."
President Donald Trump on Aug. 19 designated Brazil a major non-North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally “for the purposes … of the Arms Export Control Act,” according to a notice. The announcement allows the U.S. to loan and sell Brazil certain goods and services subject to the AECA.
Border clearance for trucks crossing the Straits of Dover from the United Kingdom to France may slow to 40 percent to 60 percent of the current flow within one day of a no-deal Brexit, according to a leaked U.K. government memo published by The Times of London on Aug. 18. And “significant disruption” at the French border may last up to six months after the U.K. leaves the EU with no transition deal, the report said.