Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced steps meant to aid its fisheries industries following China's import restrictions in reaction to Japan's release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant (see 2308240012). The ministry said it will seek "the immediate abolition of measures that are not based on scientific grounds" and make "every effort to fully support the fisheries industry nationwide." Japan pledged an 80 billion yen (about $542 million) fund and emergency support to "disperse dependence on specific countries and regions." The ministry's plan is to "build a new supply and demand structure for marine products."
Exports to China
An EU report on the bloc's 2022 trade defense activities shows the EU "robustly" applied legislation to ensure its trade measures were effective, the European Commission said. By the end of 2022, around 177 trade measures were in place, almost a fifth of them circumvention measures and most of them on goods from China, Russia, India, South Korea and the U.S. The bloc opened two anti-circumvention proceedings in 2022 and suspended all import duties and safeguard measures on Ukrainian goods following Russia's invasion, the commission noted.
A recent Congressional Research Service report on U.S.-Mexican trade relations noted that members of Congress have varying views on USMCA, the trade deal that has integrated North American supply chains, particularly in the auto industry.
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The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a temporary denial order last week against three people and four companies for their involvement in a scheme to illegally procure more than $225,000 worth of U.S. electronics components for Russia’s military. One of the individuals, Russian-German national Arthur Petrov, was arrested Aug. 26 in Cyprus and charged by DOJ with violating export controls and smuggling controlled goods from the U.S.
China will allow imports of beef from Nicaragua that meet certain inspection and quarantine requirements, the country’s General Administration of Customs announced Sept. 1, according to an unofficial translation. The announcement came one day after the two countries signed a free trade deal that will reduce certain tariffs, and import and export restrictions on certain goods (see 2308310020).
China’s commerce minister last week voiced “serious concerns” with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo about U.S. semiconductor export control policies, investment restrictions, “discriminatory subsidies” and sanctions on Chinese companies, a ministry spokesperson told reporters during an Aug. 31 news conference. The minister also asked Raimondo for the U.S. to treat all companies “equally in terms of market access, regulatory enforcement, public procurement, and policy support,” the spokesperson said, according to an unofficial translation.
China’s General Administration of Customs reminded traders that its mutual recognition arrangement with South Africa took effect Sept. 1, allowing each side to recognize the other's authorized economic operators and receive other customs benefits. The arrangement, signed in June 2021, will help aid customs clearances, give priority to shipments between the two countries, lower inspection rates and more, according to an unofficial translation.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is traveling to Europe this week to discuss security issues, including topics surrounding Russia and China. The group, led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., will travel to Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands to discuss the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the “imperative of confronting shared threats from the Chinese Communist Party,” according to an Aug. 31 news release issued by McCaul. “Together, we can harness the transatlantic alliance to safeguard our shared interests and ensure unprovoked aggression does not go unanswered anywhere in the world,” he said.
China and Nicaragua signed a free trade agreement Aug. 31, China's Ministry of Commerce announced, according to an unofficial translation. Negotiations on the deal began in July 2022 and were concluded within a year, the ministry said, adding that the agreement will allow for a "mutual opening up" in trade in goods and services and investment market access.