The chairman of the House Select Committee on China said Jan. 22 that the U.S. should take a harder line against China's aggressive policies on trade, investment and other matters.
A new set of U.S. export controls announced this week target a range of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, chip software tools, high-bandwidth memory and more, including by introducing new license obligations on certain foreign-made tools that the Bureau of Industry and Security said can be used by China to make advanced chips for its military. BIS also added more than 100 entities to the Entity List, most based in China, for aiding Beijing's military technology goals.
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.
LONDON -- Members of the German defense industry want the country to expand a trilateral agreement on export controls among Germany, France and Spain, which could help remove defense trade barriers with a range of other nations, both inside and outside the EU.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen chose Maros Sefcovic as the bloc’s commissioner for trade and economic security, saying in a Sept. 17 mission letter that Sefcovic should help the EU take a “more assertive stance” on the use of sanctions and other economic statecraft tools, work to modernize the EU’s customs system, and push to finalize free trade deals.
Minsu Fang, a Chinese national, was indicted for allegedly conspiring to import what the U.S. government believes to be "the largest amount of fentanyl precursors found in the Southern District of Texas and one of the largest in the country," DOJ announced July 22.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said July 8 that he hopes to have a "significant package of China-related legislation" signed into law this year, including measures to "punish" Chinese military firms that provide material support to Russia and Iran.
Although all members of the House Ways and Means Committee supported a bill renewing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, the bill proceeded to the House floor on a split bipartisan vote of 17-24 as Democrats unsuccessfully called to include an extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers program, which lapsed in 2022.
Congress should approve tougher sanctions and import restrictions to stem the deadly and illegal flow of fentanyl into the U.S., the House Select Committee on China said in a new report April 16.
The Treasury Department is preparing to issue a proposed rule that could expand the powers of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., allowing CFIUS to impose higher penalties and collect a broader array of information from parties involved in non-notified transactions. The rule also could give CFIUS broader subpoena abilities, expand the circumstances in which it may fine a company, set timelines for responses to mitigation proposals, and more.