Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Japan has launched a “consultation hotline” for Japanese companies located in Canada, Mexico and China that may be affected by new U.S. tariffs announced by the Trump administration (see 2502030016), Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Feb. 2. The hotline will provide “thorough support to Japanese companies affected,” according to an unofficial translation, including individual consultations from “experts specializing in North America and other areas.”
Canada announced then later rescinded retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. after both sides reached an agreement to delay new tariffs this week.
Companies should expect Trump administration to take an increasingly aggressive stance on China-related inbound and outbound investment restrictions, especially because of the makeup of President Donald Trump’s team and key Cabinet officials, a former Treasury Department official and trade consultant said.
European Parliament members this week probed the EU’s new trade commissioner about how he’s handling President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, with some members calling on the EU to prepare for retaliation.
The Trump administration may be beginning to favor the use of trade policy tools like tariffs to replace sanctions to compel foreign policy, researchers said on a podcast hosted by the Center for a New American Security last week.
Hours after President Donald Trump threatened to impose sanctions, tariffs and visa restrictions against Colombia for declining to accept a plane of deported migrants from the U.S., the White House said Colombia reversed course and agreed to the “unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens.”
A former top Commerce Department adviser in the Biden administration expects President Donald Trump and Congress to continue prioritizing export controls and other trade restrictions, although he said the government’s success partly depends on whether the administration can craft a clear, coordinated economic security strategy that doesn’t only rely on tariffs.
The Trump administration should look to negotiate new types of economic and trade deals that are centered on economic security issues, such as export controls and investment screening measures, the Center for a New American Security said in a new report this week. The think tank also called on President Donald Trump to create an economic security strategy, which should outline avenues to strengthen export control enforcement.
The Coalition for a Prosperous America, a think tank aligned with Trump's trade policy, issued a new report on agricultural trade, arguing that policies that aimed to lower U.S. tariffs in exchange for better market access for U.S. agricultural exports almost exclusively benefited soybeans, corn and wheat, while hurting fruit and vegetable farmers and livestock operations.