India is considering raising import taxes on “green energy equipment” in an effort to give Indian manufacturers and companies an advantage over cheap imports, according to an Aug. 9 report from the India Brand Equity Foundation. China has “commanded” the market for solar components, the report said, which prompted India to impose in July 2018 a “safeguard obligation” on solar cells and modules imported from China and Malaysia. But India is considering strengthening those measures, the report said, citing Anand Kumar, secretary of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
Exports to China
President Donald Trump said the U.S. is “not going to do business with Huawei” despite Commerce officials telling U.S. companies in July the agency was planning to be more lenient on Huawei-related export license applications. “We’re not going to do business with Huawei. We’re not doing business with them. And I really made the decision," Trump said while speaking to reporters Aug. 9. "It's much simpler not to do any business with Huawei, so we're not doing business with Huawei."
The U.S., China and 44 countries signed the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, a “cross-border enforcement mechanism” for settlement agreements on trade disputes that arise from a mediation process, the U.N. Information Service said in an Aug. 7 press release. The UNIS said the agreement promotes “sustainable” international trade relationships and will foster the use of mediation.
The Association of China Rare Earth Industry said it supports Chinese retaliatory measures against the U.S. and accused the U.S. of “trade bullying behavior,” according to an unofficial translation of the association’s Aug. 7 press release. The association said the U.S.’s threat of increased tariffs were “for the purpose of curbing and suppressing China’s emerging developing power.” China suspended purchases of U.S. agricultural goods in retaliation (see 1908050005). The association said it must use China’s advantages in rare earth resources and “resolutely support the country's positive response and countermeasures” against the U.S. “The practice of increasing tariffs and upgrading trade frictions in the United States not only harms China’s interests, but also seriously damages the interests of US businesses and consumers,” the association said. “We express our firm opposition.”
China unveiled on Aug. 6 its pilot plan for the new Lingang area of the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone, where goods will benefit from reduced duties or tax exemptions, according to an Aug. 6 report from Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency. The section will cover an area of about 75 square miles and will “match the standard of the most competitive free trade zones worldwide,” Xinhua said. The zone will encourage foreign access and increase the free flow of goods, and by 2025 the Lingang area “will have a relatively mature institutional system of investment and trade liberalization and facilitation,” Xinhua said. While Xinhua did not include specific details, the zone is also expected to eliminate all duties and ease most customs procedures (see 1908050013).
China told India not to block Huawei Technologies from operating in the country and threatened retaliation against Indian companies, Reuters reported Aug. 6.
Tariffs Hurt the Heartland says importers paid $6 billion in tariffs in June, up $2.5 billion, or 74 percent, from the same month in 2018. The report, based on Census data, covers the first month when Section 301 tariffs on $200 billion in imports from China were at 25 percent rather than 10 percent. The advocacy group also noted that June was the 11th month in a row that American exports targeted for retaliation declined by more than 15 percent.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, raised the possibility that he would not be able to broker a compromise between the two approaches on restraining the president's ability to levy tariffs under Section 232. While he said his goal is to have a committee meeting in late September or early October that would take up a "Grassley-Wyden" version, he said if that can't happen, he will bring forward competing bills and allow lots of amendments to shape them.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Aug. 7 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
In the Aug. 1-6 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted: