A group of 15 southwest regional customs agencies in China signed a memorandum of cooperation to improve customs clearance, “improve supervision and crack down on smuggling,” according to an Oct. 14 report from Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency. The memorandum will support the “New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor construction,” a “trade and logistics passage” built by Singapore and China, the report said.
Exports to China
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Oct. 11 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
China plans to launch six “international marketing service platforms” to try to promote overseas trade, according to an Oct. 11 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The initiative will create centers in the United Arab Emirates, Romania, South Africa, Bangladesh and Hungary, the HKTDC said.
Japan’s trade minister said there are still “some issues” that need to be worked out during negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership despite progress being made, according to an unofficial translation of an Oct. 11 press conference.
In an opinion piece published on CNN.com, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the U.S. needs allies in addressing "the problems that are eroding the [World Trade Organization]'s credibility and effectiveness. These are problems that, if left unresolved, will endanger the WTO's future relevance." They said the fact that China still gets special treatment as a developing country is a big problem, and should be changed. Countries ignore transparency requirements. And, they said, the appellate body has strayed from its mission. But, they said, there are reasons to hope. "Negotiations are underway to curtail the fish subsidies that have long promoted overfishing," as well as e-commerce negotiations. "If concluded, these agreements would demonstrate that the WTO can still serve as the institution it was intended to be."
President Donald Trump announced a "very substantial phase 1" deal in the Oval Office Oct. 11, saying the Chinese and American negotiators came to a deal on intellectual property, financial services and agricultural sales. The president said China will buy as much as $40 billion to $50 billion worth of American commodities. He also said good progress had been made on issues around technology transfer from American companies to Chinese partners.
Business and labor leaders and government insider panelists agreed that the U.S.-China trade war will be difficult to unravel, but disagreed on how quickly Democrats could -- or should -- resolve outstanding issues on the NAFTA rewrite. The trade panel Oct. 10, hosted by Fiscal Note, included Clete Willems, former White House deputy assistant to the president for international economics, who said that although it pained him to say it, "The political conditions in both countries are just not conducive to the big deal."
The Trump administration plans to soon issue export licenses to allow a “select few” U.S. companies to supply nonsensitive goods to Huawei, an Oct. 9 report in The New York Times said. Trump approved the step in a meeting last week, the report said, a little more than a month after the Commerce Department renewed the temporary general license for Huawei until Nov. 18 (see 1908190039).
In the Oct. 10 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
In the Oct. 9 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted: