Representatives from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Commerce Department presented draft negotiating text on trade facilitation, agriculture, services, domestic regulation, and transparency and good regulatory practices in the trade pillar, as well as text on supply chains, during negotiations for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework in Brisbane, Australia, Dec. 10-15.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack met with Mexican officials Dec. 16 to talk about Mexican plans to ban the import of genetically modified corn. The meeting came after the Biden administration heard from Congress that the U.S. should confront Mexico over the policy.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., criticized the U.S. decision not to intervene in the purchase of North Dakota farm land by China-based Fufeng Group, saying the acquisition threatens U.S. national security. “The Chinese Communist Party should not be allowed to purchase land near our military bases. It is dangerous and dumb,” Rubio said in a Dec. 14 statement. “Congress mandated that [the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.] protect America’s national security and that should be its first priority, not making it easier for Chinese businesses, with ties to Beijing, to operate in the United States.”
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, the former House Ways and Means Committee chairman who is retiring from Congress at the end of the month, told reporters in a farewell press conference that he thinks, with divided government, the administration will not be able to impose its will in trade and international tax policies by avoiding tariff reductions.
House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Kevin Brady, R-Texas, who is retiring at the end of this Congress, and outgoing New Democrats Chair Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., introduced a resolution that asks the U.S. trade representative to re-launch negotiations at the World Trade Organization to liberalize trade in environmental goods.
Exporters seeing an increase in “speeding ticket” fines (see 1909240034) in their Electronic Export Information filings can reach out to the Census Bureau to try to “remedy” the situation, said Jessica Mangubat, a Census Bureau official. But she stressed that exporters should first direct questions to CBP, which handles EEI enforcement issues.
The Bureau of Industry and Security isn’t preparing any “imminent” emerging technology export controls on artificial intelligence items, Hillary Hess, the agency’s regulatory policy director, said during a technical advisory committee meeting this week. She also denied an industry rumor the U.S. is preparing to issue a set of sweeping, advanced AI controls, similar to the semiconductor restrictions against China that were released in October.
The Bureau of Industry and Security should have given its technical advisory committees more time to review its new chip controls before they were published in October (see 2210070049), which would have helped BIS mitigate unintended consequences for a dense and complex set of restrictions, a chip industry official and an advisory committee member said this week. The semiconductor industry also wished BIS had first proposed some of the restrictions for public comment before making them final, the official said, or delayed the effective date to give companies more time to decipher the rules, especially surrounding the new U.S.-persons restrictions.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. recently cleared a U.S.-Singapore acquisition in the real estate industry, Squire Patton said in a Dec. 12 alert. CFIUS cleared the $14 billion acquisition of U.S.-based STORE Capital by Singapore-based GIC Private Limited and U.S.-based Blue Owl Capital. STORE Capital is an “internally managed net-lease real estate investment trust,” and GIC and Blue Owl are investors.
U.S. lawmakers unveiled legislation this week that would block certain transactions with TikTok or other social media companies under the influence of China, Russia and several other foreign countries. The Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act, introduced in the Senate by Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and in the House by Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., “would protect Americans by blocking and prohibiting all transactions” with TikTok, the lawmakers said.