Information technology exports from the U.S. increased by 2.5 percent to an estimated $338 billion from 2017 to 2018, but export growth in that sector slowed, according to a 2019 technology trade report from the Computing Technology Industry Association. The report said growth slowed “slightly” compared to the 2017 rate of 4.5 percent. Since 2010, the report said, exports in the information technology sector experienced a 23 percent “aggregate growth” and added about “$65 billion in new earnings.”

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in a speech on the Senate floor May 21, said he hopes that the administration does not repeat with Huawei what it did with ZTE, "where we stood tough at the beginning, it had an effect, and then we backed off."

That the U.S. made “unreasonable demands” on China “through maximum pressure” is the “underlying reason” why 11 rounds of negotiations “failed to yield an agreement,” a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson said May 20. “This wouldn't work from the very beginning.” When U.S. threats didn't work and “instead led to widespread doubts at home and abroad as well as market fluctuations, the U.S. “resorted to muddying the waters and shifting the blame,” he said. “The international community bears witness to the sincere and constructive attitude China has shown in the past 11 rounds of negotiations.” There’s “hope for success only when the consultations proceed on the right track of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit,” he said. The Office of U.S. Trade Representative didn’t comment.

Global economic growth slowed “sharply” in 2018 due to escalating trade conflicts and could continue to slow from the U.S.’s trade war with China, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said in a May 21 report. While global growth has stabilized at a “moderate level” in 2019, the report expects the global economy to grow at a “fragile” rate in the next two years, but could be derailed by “trade tensions, high policy uncertainty, risks in financial markets and a slowdown in China.” Trade tensions could slow global growth to 3.2 percent in 2019 and 3.4 percent in 2020, OECD said, and world trade will grow by just more than 2 percent in 2019, which would be the lowest rate in a decade. The estimates are conditional on “no escalation of trade tensions,” OECD added, which could reduce global gross domestic output by more than 0.6 percent over the next three years.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service recently clarified procedures for exporters to obtain radiation letters, according to the North American Meat Institute. In communications with Meat Institute staff, FAS said requests for radiation letters should include the U.S. company name, address, phone number and point of contact name. “Requests also should stipulate the agricultural commodity being exported, the export destination and the number of radiation letters needed -- the limit is 50,” the trade group said. Exporters are required to submit requests on company letterhead to the FAS Processed Products and Technical Regulations division, which will then issue the radiation letters via UPS for agricultural food and feed products only, the North American Meat Institute said. Companies are required to send a UPS label along with their requests, it said.

Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said Congress will soon pass a bill placing sanctions on Nord Stream 2, the Russian gas pipeline to Germany, Reuters reported May 21. The bill would likely place significant restrictions on companies involved in the project. Perry said the bill will appear in the “not too distant future,” according to Reuters. “The United States Senate is going to pass a bill, the House is going to approve it, and it’s going to go to the President and he’s going to sign it, that is going to put sanctions on Nord Stream 2.”

The State Department designated 22 people, entities or their subsidiaries under the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act for trading goods that may be used for weapons of mass destruction or ballistic missile systems, the department said in a Federal Register notice to be published May 22. The additions include people and entities associated or located in China, Iran, Russia and Syria.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 13-17 in case they were missed.

The Department of Justice is working on more ways to reward corporate compliance programs and searching for benefits that extend beyond lenient rulings on violations, said Claire McCusker Murray, the DOJ's principal deputy associate attorney general.

An agricultural exporter recently joined a Supreme Court challenge of the constitutionality of Section 232 duties on steel and aluminum imports. Basrai Farms says the brunt of retaliatory tariffs imposed worldwide in response to the U.S. tariffs has fallen on the agriculture industry, and that the Supreme Court should find Section 232 unconstitutional because President Donald Trump was required to consider these broader effects when imposing the tariffs.