Trump Admin Continues to Study Outbound Investment Bill, Official Says
The Trump administration needs a “bit more time” to review a congressional proposal to restrict U.S. outbound investment in China, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said May 7.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
That review is occurring as the administration works to implement President Donald Trump’s February memo calling on U.S. agencies to consider expanding existing outbound investment restrictions against China (see 2502240051 and 2504250019).
“We appreciate that Congress wants to move forward legislation that is important and helpful,” Bessent testified before the House Financial Services Committee. “We would like a bit more time for our process, including the work mandated by the president, to inform the legislation so that it is durable because of the importance of this.”
Bessent made his comments in response to Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., who, along with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced the Foreign Investment Guardrails to Help Thwart China Act, or Fight China Act, in March (see 2503240014 and 2503130059). The bill would expand upon the Biden administration’s October 2024 rule on outbound investment by covering more artificial intelligence models and by adding hypersonic and related aerospace technologies. It would also authorize the president to impose sanctions on Chinese entities connected to China’s military and intelligence apparatus.
Barr said the need for his legislation was underscored by a $75 million U.S.-led investment reportedly secured by Chinese startup Manus AI, which is developing “militarized artificial intelligence.”
Also during the hearing, Bessent testified that he plans to continue a new effort to sanction Chinese refineries that buy Iranian crude oil. Treasury announced its second sanctioning of a Chinese refinery in April (see 2504160004).
Bessent also said he has signed an order that identifies Chinese entities involved in the fentanyl trade. The order will be made public “within the next few days," he told the committee. Lawmakers frequently have raised concerns about China’s export of fentanyl precursor chemicals to Mexican drug traffickers (see 2503270032 and 2412180045).