Kharon, a company that provides intelligence to help companies with global compliance issues, says that caustic soda, commonly known as lye, is being produced by a state-owned company in Xinjiang, and is being sold to Vietnamese fabric manufacturers and electronics manufacturers, and is even being sold to U.S. cleaning products manufacturers.
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
The Senate passed a resolution to end the duty waiver on solar panels from Southeast Asia that the Commerce Department says circumvent antidumping and countervailing duties, but the president has promised to veto the resolution.
Some supply chain agreements in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework may be announced in May, according to officials at the Asia Society Policy Institute, and the institute held a webinar May 3 and released a paper with recommendations of how to shape the supply chain pillar ahead of those announcements.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wrote to CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller, arguing that since a Chinese-owned cobalt mining company is partnering with Ford and PT Vale Indonesia to open a nickel processing facility in Indonesia, "there is a high likelihood that Huayou will also introduce forced and child labor to Indonesia."
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he'll use the 2021 trade title from the Senate China package as his committee works on its contribution to a second China package envisioned by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to address economic competition with China and to deter Chinese aggression toward Taiwan.
The chairman and ranking member of the House Select Committee on China wrote to Adidas and Nike, telling them they were told by a witness that they source material from Xinjiang for their products, and to Shein and Temu, asking them questions about their use of de minimis, and, in the case of Shein, asking it to share all its cotton DNA test results with the committee.
The Americas Act, a draft bill that would expand free trade benefits to more Latin American countries while also only offering de minimis at reciprocal levels (see 2301110045), has gained a Democratic co-sponsor, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.
Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng said that Canada and its partners in NAFTA 2.0 will not be caught unawares when it's time for the sunset review in 2026. She said that she and her counterparts in Mexico and the U.S. will be taking stock of how the agreement is working in July.
Almost five months have passed since the U.S. learned it lost its case under USMCA, and that, in order to be faithful to what it negotiated, it must allow automotive producers to use roll-up methodologies to meet regional content thresholds for core parts. The U.S. was supposed to resolve the dispute within 45 days, but has not done so.
The fact that no one responded to comments during a recent field hearing about the expiration of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program doesn't mean Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee don't care about GSP, House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said.