Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground,” in a statement May 27 to Congress that Hong Kong no longer warrants the same treatment under U.S. laws as it did before the handover to China in 1997.
The U.S. government decision to increase license requirements for certain foreign exports to Huawei may damage U.S. companies more than Huawei and China, experts said. The same may be true for sanctions being prepared against China for interference with Hong Kong’s autonomy (see 2005220011), the experts said, which may present a large challenge for U.S. businesses. “If the administration follows through on the kinds of threats that they’re talking about … it will have a hugely negative impact on U.S. companies operating there, it will have a hugely negative impact on the people of Hong Kong, and it will have a minuscule effect on China,” said Nicholas Lardy, a Chinese economy expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 18-22 in case you missed them.
The World Customs Organization issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs began an interagency review for a final rule from the Commerce Department that will implement certain export control decisions from the 2018 Wassenaar Arrangement plenary. The rule, received by OIRA May 20, will also make “other revisions related to national security controls.” During a May 19 Emerging Technology Technical Advisory Committee meeting, Commerce officials said the agency is preparing to issue several emerging technology controls within weeks (see 2005190052).
The Senate Commerce Committee recommended a bill that would establish a volunteer National Shipper Advisory Committee that would give advice to the Federal Maritime Commission about the reliability, competitiveness, integrity and fairness of international ocean freight. The commission would invite 12 importers and 12 exporters to participate. S.B. 2894, introduced by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., passed out of committee on a voice vote on May 20.
The Treasury Department issued a proposed rule to modify mandatory declaration requirements for certain transactions involving critical technologies. Under the rule, transactions would require a declaration if the critical technology would normally be subject to a U.S. export license. This would be a change from certain declaration requirements for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. outlined under a 2018 pilot program, which based those decisions on whether the transactions met criteria established by the North American Industry Classification System.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who was testifying in front of the Senate Banking Committee May 19, was asked by Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., why the government hasn't placed sanctions on Huawei. He said that Huawei and some other Chinese companies aren't really private-sector firms, and that they were built by stealing American intellectual property.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 11-15 in case you missed them.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is preparing to issue several additional export controls over emerging technologies and is finalizing a long-awaited advance notice of proposed rulemaking for foundational technologies, BIS officials said. The emerging technology controls will be released “within the next few weeks,” an official said, while the foundational technology ANPRM will soon be sent for interagency review and for feedback by technical advisory committee members before being publicly released.