China will suspend all imports of aquatic products from Japan starting Aug. 24 in response to Japan's release of nuclear-contaminated water into the ocean (see 2308220022), the General Administration of Customs announced, according to an unofficial translation. The customs administration said the move, which also covers edible aquatic animals, is meant to shield the health of Chinese consumers and ensure the safety of food imports.
Exports to China
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, speaking Aug. 24 to other G-20 trade ministers, said the U.S. wants to reform the World Trade Organization by improving compliance with -- and enforcement of -- WTO members' commitments, "restoring efficacy to the negotiating arm; ... equipping the Membership to address unfair practices and global market distortions, and putting the organization on the footing to promote trade policies that build resilience and address current global challenges."
The Biden administration’s road to implement regulations for its outbound investment executive order will be “incredibly complex,” particularly if agencies disagree on how narrow or broad to scope the restrictions,Thomas Feddo, a former Treasury Department official, said during a webinar this week. Lawyers on the webinar said investors are “very concerned” about the rules having a potential “chilling” effect on a broad range of investments, especially if the government fails to adequately define a range of key terms in the executive order.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, responding to a question from Express Association of America Executive Director Mike Mullen, said he was exactly right when he said that while there's a long list of problems with China, the government also has to keep in mind "how important China is to our economy, and maintaining that into the future."
The European Commission this month released its annual report on political and economic developments in Hong Kong, saying the region continues to see a decline in “fundamental freedoms,” partly caused by its National Security Law. The bloc reminded industry that several EU trade restrictions in response to the law remain in force, including “scrutiny and limitation of exports of sensitive equipment.” The EU also said Hong Kong’s trade and logistics sector “contracted” over the past year. Hong Kong's GDP from its import and export industry fell by 6.9% in the first half of 2022 compared with the same time period in 2021, and “external trade in goods” dropped 4% year over year in the first 10 months of 2022, the report said.
A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said China "welcomes" the Bureau of Industry and Security's recent move to drop 33 entities from its Unverified List after the agency carried out end-use checks (see 2308210015). The move, which included Chinese companies, shows that both countries can address "specific concerns through communication based on mutual respect," the spokesperson said. In a separate release, the country's Ministry of Commerce said the BIS decision is "conducive to the normal trade between Chinese and American companies and is in line with the common interests of both parties," according to an unofficial translation. BIS made the move after an agency policy change that lets it move companies from the UVL to the Entity List if BIS is unable to conduct an end-use check on those companies within 60 days.
China fined Mintz Group, an American due diligence services firm, $1.5 million for allegedly conducting "unapproved statistical work," The Wall Street Journal reported Aug. 21. This comes after China raided Mintz Group's office in March and detained five officials, the report said (see 2305260054).
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The U.S. and Europe should create a shared list of companies subject to investment restrictions, which would help both sides better harmonize their inbound and outbound screening rules and create a “level playing field” for investors, said Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a China studies fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She also said the two sides could create a shared “white list” of foreign investors that would be exempt from the restrictions, streamlining filings before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and reviews conducted by EU member states.
British semiconductor company Arm, in its initial U.S. public offering this week, said it’s facing uncertainty from U.S. and U.K. export controls and doesn’t expect to receive an export license to ship certain high performance processor cores to China. The company also said it’s expecting to see slower growth in its China sales revenue due to several factors, including various government-imposed “trade and national security policies.”