The House voted 406-1 late May 7 to pass a bill that would sanction those who fund, sponsor or otherwise facilitate forced organ harvesting or the trafficking of people to remove their organs.
Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., welcomed the Trump administration’s decision to rescind and replace the Biden administration’s AI diffusion rule (see 2505070039), while House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., offered a more guarded response.
U.S. and Vietnamese officials met May 7 in Vietnam to discuss boosting trade between the two countries and possibly beginning negotiations on a new trade agreement, according to an unofficial translation of a Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade notice. Vietnamese Trade Minister Nguyen Hong Dien told Marc Knapper, the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, that the two nations should “promptly remove difficulties and obstacles” and “create favorable conditions for businesses in cooperation projects, as well as the purchase and sale of essential products.”
A U.S.-U.K. trade deal announced in the Oval Office leaves the average tariff on U.K. goods at 10%; however, aerospace engines and parts will enter duty-free.
The U.S. this week sanctioned a Chinese refinery and three port terminal operators for their role in buying Iranian oil. It also sanctioned multiple companies, vessels and ship captains responsible for moving those oil shipments as part of Iran’s shadow fleet.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is preparing to publish a notice that will officially rescind the AI diffusion export control rule released by the Biden administration in January, according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. BIS sent the notice for interagency review on May 7 (see 2505070039).
The U.K. this week fined a fuel transportation company about $6,600, or 5,000 pounds, for failing to respond to a request for information from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. OFSI said U.K.-registered Svarog Shipping & Trading Company Limited, which does business in the maritime oil shipment sector in Cyprus, didn’t respond in time to OFSI questions last year despite receiving “multiple reminders” about the deadline.
The Treasury Department will create a new fast-track process for certain deals filed with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., the agency announced May 8, saying the process will help encourage more investments in American businesses from close U.S. allies.
Several European think tanks this week launched a new project with an interactive dashboard of graphics and analyses to help industry and governments better monitor the economic and trade relationship between China and Russia. The dashboard includes regularly updated charts and information about key trade between the two countries, including in fossil fuels, dual-use goods and machine tools. The project was created by the Centre for Eastern Studies, the Mercator Institute for China Studies, and the Swedish Institute of International Affairs' Swedish National China Centre and Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies.
The EU should take lessons learned from the “effectively dormant” U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (see 2503280039) and translate those into a new strategy for coordinating export controls and other trade issues with allies, the Paris-based Institut Montaigne think tank said in a report released this month.