Five members of the House Select Committee on China are visiting Taiwan Feb. 22-24 to show support for the democratic country and discuss trade and investment, regional security and other issues with senior Taiwanese leaders and members of civil society, the committee said.
Morocco launched a safeguard investigation on coated fiberboard on Feb. 20, it told the World Trade Organization's Committee on Safeguards, the WTO announced. Morocco said interested parties have 30 days from the start of the investigation to comment on the proceeding.
The U.K. Parliament’s Business and Trade Committee this week published a report on the country’s upcoming accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, outlining what the committee views as the trade deal's benefits and impact on U.K. trade, and recommendations for the government. It also includes testimony from U.K. government officials on the deal’s expected impacts on rules of origin procedures, expanded market access and goods sectors that may “lose” as a result of the partnership.
The Biden administration should promote de-escalation of the Israel-Hamas war by prioritizing defensive weapons systems over offensive ones when it makes its next major weapons transfer to Israel, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said in a Feb. 21 letter to President Joe Biden.
A bipartisan group of 11 House members urged the Biden administration on Feb. 16 to impose Global Magnitsky Act sanctions on seven Chinese companies for allegedly using Uyghur forced labor to provide seafood to U.S. markets.
The EU and the U.S. should try to reach a more “concrete” set of outcomes before the next Trade and Technology Council meeting in April and may discuss making the body permanent, said Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU’s top trade official. He said the two sides are “fleshing out new ideas” on supply chain, export controls and investment screening issues, and they want to make progress before the current European Commission term ends in October and before the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
A draft text on World Trade Organization dispute settlement reform efforts was released Feb. 16, ahead of the 13th Ministerial Conference, which is set to be held Feb. 26-29. In all, the text includes 11 sections, covering issues including alternative dispute resolution procedures and arbitration, panel proceedings, compliance and transparency. Notably, the text doesn't include any discussion of the appeal or review mechanism, which is seen as the largest sticking point in reform talks.
The House of Representatives voted 389-32 on Feb. 14 to pass a bill that would expand sanctions on Syria's Bashar Assad regime.
The Biden administration is considering “a whole number of options” to respond to the reported death in prison of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, President Joe Biden told reporters on Feb. 16 when asked if he is looking at increasing sanctions on Russia.
The U.S. should pursue forming a new multilateral regime to coordinate export controls and related policies for critical and emerging technologies (CET) because existing multilateral export control entities are ill-suited for that role, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a new report.