Two Senate Republicans this week suggested they will support the Foreign Relations Committee’s recently introduced China legislation (see 2104080066) that would authorize more export controls and investment restrictions to counter Chinese trade and technology practices.
Exports to China
U.S.-China Business Council President Craig Allen, former deputy assistant secretary for China in the State Department, said that the Chinese were taken by surprise by how little has changed in the new administration. “There was an expectation between [Donald] Trump and [Joe] Biden, there would be a loosening of technology regulations,” he said, but Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has taken steps to tighten export restrictions that affect Huawei, and there have been actions under the new Information, Communications and Telecommunications Services (ICTS) regulations.
The U.S. should quickly pass a bipartisan bill that would increase U.S. investment in technology research and high-tech manufacturing, technology experts and academic leaders told the Senate April 14. Some lawmakers argued that the bill, which is partly aimed at boosting U.S. technology competition with China, should also include measures to better protect U.S. critical technologies from being stolen by the Chinese government.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for April 5-9 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The U.S. and China saw an uptick in trade restrictions during the first few months of 2021, and companies should expect more compliance challenges as they continue to contend with a variety of export controls and sanctions issues from both countries, law firms said.
The trade policy counsel at a free markets-oriented think tank said that the hike in tariffs on 70% of what we import from China has increased costs on consumers, led to an estimated 300,000 fewer jobs, and didn't achieve its aims. “That might have been worth it if China were making wholesale changes to its commercial policies, but the early indications are not positive,” Clark Packard said during an R Street Institute webinar April 9. Packard said that staffers on Capitol Hill accept his argument that tariffs are damaging to the U.S. economy, but they say that not doing anything to respond to China's quest for economic domination is not an answer.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee released bipartisan legislation that it said will better position the U.S. to compete with China and penalize Chinese human rights abuses. The more than 200-page Strategic Competition Act of 2021, released April 8, would authorize a host of U.S. measures to tackle trade and technology competition issues with China, including sanctions, export controls and increased cooperation with allies on investment screenings. The bill focuses on countering China’s “predatory international economic behavior” and represents an “unprecedented” bipartisan effort, committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said. Menendez said the bill has the support to be “overwhelmingly approved” by the committee next week and the full Senate “shortly thereafter.”
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo suggested her agency has no plans to remove Huawei from the Entity List and said she will aggressively use trade tools to compete with China. But she also said she will prioritize efforts to invest in U.S. technology industries over imposing more export restrictions. “My broad view is what we do on offense is more important than what we do on defense,” Raimondo told reporters April 7. “To compete in the long run with China, we need to rebuild America in all of the ways we're talking about.”
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for March 29-April 2 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The U.S. is ceding its strategic and trade advantages in the Indo-Pacific to China, which is expanding its influence through technology exports and outbound technology investments, the Center for a New American Security said in a March 31 report. The Joe Biden administration can reverse the trend through closer cooperation with allies in the region, including Japan and India, which have been willing to deny certain Chinese investments and object to coercion attempts, CNAS said.