Japan said it will allow “legitimate” exports to South Korea as it prepares today to remove the country from its list of trusted trading partners. During an Aug. 27 press conference, Hiroshige Seko, Japan’s minister of trade, economy and industry, repeated assertions that the move is not a “countermeasure” to any South Korean actions and is not an export embargo.
The U.S. and Japan agreed to a trade deal that will see Japan buy more U.S. agricultural goods, including beef, pork, dairy and corn, the countries announced during the G-7 summit in France.
U.S. industry representatives criticized China’s Aug. 23 decision to impose retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. and called for the two sides to quickly reach a trade deal. The latest Chinese tariffs could lock U.S. companies out of China for “many years,” said Doug Barry, spokesman for the U.S.-China Business Council. Barry said U.S. companies are worried that China is finding other suppliers as the trade war continues, and the latest measures may only speed up the process. “More worrisome is the signal to everyone, everywhere, that the trade conflict is getting worse, not better,” Barry said. “So let’s not invest and let’s not buy.”
China Criticizes US Restrictions on Huawei, Plans to Make Unreliable Entity List Announcement 'Soon'
China’s Ministry of Commerce repeated claims that it will retaliate against higher U.S. tariffs, said it opposed new U.S. measures against Huawei and plans to make an announcement involving its so-called unreliable entity list “soon,” spokesman Gao Feng said at an Aug. 22 press conference, according to an unofficial translation of a transcript from the briefing.
CBP officials applauded the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee’s report on improving trade in the Northern Triangle but said the report’s recommendations won’t lead to change unless COAC receives more of a commitment from the U.S. government. “It must be consistent and sustainable,” Josephine Baiamonte, CBP’s executive director for the International Operations Division of the Office of International Affairs, said during an Aug. 21 COAC meeting in Buffalo, New York. “Those two things are the things that are missing right now.”
Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security issued a guidance on Aug. 20 about the disclosure of technology or software subject to export controls “between and among members of standards setting or development groups or bodies.” BIS said it issued the guidance after receiving “a number of questions” about the temporary general license for Huawei and the Chinese company’s addition to the Entity List. The guidance tries to clarify which activities are prohibited among standards organizations when discussing Huawei and its Entity Listing.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dismissed the notion that the Trump administration has sent mixed messages on Huawei, saying the president’s plans have “been unambiguous.” Pompeo’s comments came days after Trump said the U.S. would not be extending a temporary general license for Huawei, followed by the Commerce Department extending the license for 90 days (see 1908190039).
A lack of trade facilitation, infrastructure and widespread corruption are three of the main challenges stymieing trade in the Northern Triangle, which could be improved with U.S. help, the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee Rapid Response Subcommittee said in a report prepared for the Aug. 21 COAC meeting. The report, compiled from COAC’s Northern Triangle Working Group, issued several recommendations for improving trade, including specific adjustments Northern Triangle countries can make to their customs agencies, an enhanced foreign-trade zone in the area, training from U.S. customs officials and better trade enforcement.
Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security on Aug. 19 renewed the temporary general license for Huawei and added 46 more of the company’s non-U.S. affiliates to the Entity List, bringing the total number of impacted Huawei affiliates to more than 100.
China's newly announced Shanghai Free Trade Zone will continue “regardless” of its trade relationship with the U.S., China’s Vice Commerce Minister and top trade negotiator Wang Shouwen said during an Aug. 6 press conference, according to an unofficial translation of a transcript from it.