The Bureau of Industry and Security has been ordered in recent months to avoid tough export controls on China as Washington tries to strike a trade deal with Beijing, the Financial Times reported July 28. The report comes after Trump administration officials said they planned to lift restrictions on Nvidia's H20 chip exports to China as part of an agreement that saw Beijing ease restrictions on rare earths (see 2507150013). The White House and BIS didn't respond to our requests for comment.
In separate letters to the Trump administration, more than 20 former national security officials along with five Senate Democrats urged the Commerce Department to reverse its decision to approve exports of Nvidia’s advanced AI chips to China.
The U.S. and the EU reached a trade deal this week that will include a 15% U.S. tariff on most EU exports and will eliminate duties on both sides for other items, including aircraft parts and certain semiconductor equipment, agricultural products and more. The EU also will buy advanced American AI chips along with more American energy as part of the bloc’s effort to phase out purchases from Russia, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
The EU on July 24 published an updated list of retaliatory tariffs it may impose against the U.S. in case it can't reach an agreement with the Trump administration to reverse threatened U.S. duties on steel, aluminum, cars and other goods (see 2507140040). The list includes more than 200 pages of commodity codes, with increased duties of up to 30% on agricultural goods, aircraft, cars, medical devices and electronics. The retaliatory duties will take effect Aug. 7 if the two sides don't come to a solution, the EU said.
Sens. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., introduced a bill July 23 that would require the State Department to analyze whether the U.S. should use export controls, sanctions or “other economic restrictions” to discourage other countries from buying Chinese military equipment.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said July 23 that he plans to reintroduce a bill that seeks to deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan by threatening to impose “massive sanctions” on China if such an attack were to occur. Sullivan made his comment at a hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which he chairs. Sullivan introduced the bill, the Sanctions Targeting Aggressors of Neighboring Democracies (STAND) with Taiwan Act, in the previous two Congresses (see 2407190039).
Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, took to the Senate floor July 23 to reiterate his call for the U.K., France and Germany to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran for violating its nuclear weapons-related obligations.
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved an FY 2026 transportation appropriations bill July 24 that would fully fund the Trump administration’s $40 million for the Federal Maritime Commission. The House version of the bill, which the House Appropriations Committee endorsed July 17, contains the same amount for the FMC (see 2507140005).
The U.K. and India announced plans last week to officially sign their new free trade deal (see 2505070036), which is expected to reduce tariffs for a range of goods and make it "easier and cheaper" for British companies to buy India's "best products," the U.K. said. The prime minister's office also said India’s average tariff on U.K. products will drop from 15% to 3%, saying whiskey producers will especially benefit from duties being "slashed in half," with further reductions over the next 10 years. The two sides signed a host of side letters under the agreement, and a 13-page document outlines the deal's chapter on customs and trade facilitation.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control deleted a range of entries from its Specially Designated Nationals List last week that were originally sanctioned for their ties to Myanmar or North Korea. The delistings include KT Services & Logistics Company Limited and its CEO, Jonathan Myo Kyaw Thaung, a company OFAC sanctioned in 2022 for being controlled by the Myanmar military; Funsaga Pte Ltd., which also was sanctioned in 2022 for doing business with a North Korean-run animation studio; and Suntac Technologies, which was sanctioned in 2023 for ties to the Myanmar military. OFAC didn't release more information about why it removed those entries.