The European Commission has proposed 25% retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. goods in response to the tariffs on steel and aluminum President Donald Trump imposed last month (see 2503120042), according to a document seen by Reuters, the news service reported April 7.
A senior Chinese Commerce Ministry trade official met with representatives from more than 20 U.S. companies in Bejing on April 6 to discuss the Trump administration's "abuse of tariffs" and Beijing's retaliatory measures (see 2504040024), according to an unofficial translation of the ministry's readout of the meeting. Ling Ji, China's vice commerce minister, said he hopes American companies will "take practical actions" and "jointly maintain the stability of the global production and supply chain." He also said Beijing is committed to multilateralism. The U.S. tariffs have "seriously damaged the rules-based multilateral trading system and seriously infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of all countries," the official said. The meeting featured officials from Tesla, GE Healthcare, Medtronic and others, China said.
The State Department approved three possible military sales to Ecuador, the Philippines and Kuwait, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said last week.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., reintroduced a bill April 7 that aims to close a loophole that has allowed China to use cloud service providers to access advanced U.S. computing chips remotely.
Reps. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and John James, R-Mich., introduced a bill April 3 that would direct the administration to identify South African government officials and African National Congress leaders who should be sanctioned for human rights abuses or corruption.
Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Wash., reintroduced a bill April 3 that would require an annual report to Congress on sanctions imposed under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, a 2020 law that aims to address the wrongful detainment of U.S. nationals abroad.
The Census Bureau this week added and removed Harmonized Tariff Schedule/Schedule B Classifications that require reporting in the Automated Export System for shipments of used vehicles. The agency added HTS/Schedule B number 8432.80.0010, which includes certain agricultural equipment listed as "tow behind spreaders, aerators, and de-thatchers," and it removed 8708.30.0050, which includes certain "other vehicles."
A new license issued this week by the Office of Foreign Assets Control authorizes payments of certain taxes, fees, import duties, licenses, certifications and other similar transactions involving the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation that would normally be blocked under Directive 4 of Executive Order 14024. General License 13M authorizes those transactions through 12:01 a.m. EDT July 9 as long as they are “ordinarily incident and necessary to the day-to-day operations in the Russian Federation of such U.S. persons or entities.”
The European Commission this week updated its Syria-related sanctions guidance to clarify what types of activities with the country are permitted after the EU in February suspended certain restrictions against Syria (see 2502240010). The guidance also addresses how EU companies should approach the “interplay between EU sanctions and US sanctions” against Syria, saying that EU parties “are not required to comply with US sanctions. They are only required to comply with EU sanctions.” It added that U.S. sanctions “might be intended to produce effects beyond the US territory and seek to regulate the behaviour of EU economic operators that have no significant connection to the US,” but the EU doesn’t recognize the “extra-territorial application of laws adopted by third countries and considers such application to be contrary to international law.”
Even if the Trump administration were to lift U.S. sanctions against Russia, the country would still be “uninvestable” for multinational companies because of the EU’s trade and financial restrictions, which would likely remain in place, said Janis Kluge of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.