The U.S. needs to better enforce its existing export controls on advanced AI chips and chip equipment while bolstering its ability to screen Chinese investments that may be looking to evade those restrictions, several witnesses told Congress this week. But another witness said the current U.S. chip controls have so far failed and called on the government to rework its export control strategy.
David Sacks, the president's AI policy adviser, said the Biden-era AI diffusion export control rule was an “overreach” of U.S. export control authority and alienated American allies. The Bureau of Industry and Security’s plan to rescind the rule (see 2505070039 and 2505080026) was an “excellent decision,” he said last week.
PKDC LLC, a Colorado-based furniture distributor, accused China-based ocean carrier Cosco Shipping Lines Co. of charging “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in unfair demurrage and detention fees, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Maritime Commission this month.
The European Commission opened a public consultation regarding a list of U.S. imports that could become subject to tariffs in response to the flurry of U.S. trade action, should talks with the White House fall through, the commission announced. The list covers over $107 billion worth of U.S. imports, including a "broad range of industrial and agricultural products," it said.
Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., reintroduced a bill May 5 designed to strengthen sanctions against several sources of funding for Myanmar’s military.
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.