World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told former U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman that she had a meeting with USTR Jamieson Greer "yesterday that was a little bit comforting," but that the current 10% U.S. tariff on most countries, plus 25% tariffs on cars, steel and aluminum and some products from Canada and Mexico, and 145% tariffs on Chinese imports, if it lasts, will result in global merchandise trade falling by 0.2%. Before the actions, the WTO forecast a 2.7% growth in goods trade this year.
House Select Committee on China ranking member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., is expected to run to replace Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who announced April 23 that he will not seek re-election next year. Krishnamoorthi has been active on a wide range of export control issues, such as pushing to curb shipments of advanced computing chips to China (see 2501300067).
The Commerce Department should conduct a “comprehensive evaluation” of the export controls it has imposed on the U.S. semiconductor industry in recent years to determine whether they are achieving their goal of protecting national security, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said.
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The Bureau of Industry and Security's recent rules that expanded foreign direct product rule restrictions over chip equipment (see 2412020016) and set new foundry due diligence rules (see 2501150040) are already hurting U.S. companies, the U.S.-China Business Council said, including by incentivizing foreign firms to design U.S.-origin goods out of their chip supply chains.
A purported draft executive order to reorganize the State Department that served as the basis for a New York Times article is a "fake document,” an agency spokesperson said in an email April 21.
New export license requirements that the Trump administration recently imposed on chipmakers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) may not be the last of such actions, Miller & Chevalier said in an alert April 21.
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) called on the Bureau of Industry and Security April 15 to “rethink” its "flawed" interim final rule on artificial intelligence diffusion, saying the computing chip-related export controls are so complicated and far-reaching that they will harm the long-term international competitiveness of the U.S. semiconductor industry.
Regular and broadly inclusive communication within a multinational company is key to having a successful export control program, two compliance experts said April 17 during a webinar hosted by professional services firm BDO.
The House Select Committee on China said in a new report that the Bureau of Industry and Security should receive additional funding to improve its export control capabilities amid a growing workload.