China

The Commerce Department will no longer issue export license exceptions for products headed to Hong Kong as the U.S. works to “eliminate differential treatment” that Hong Kong has long been afforded by the U.S., the agency announced on Monday.

The White House this week published a long-overdue strategy document outlining a “whole-of-government” approach to counter a variety of Chinese policies, including trade and economic practices that the president has often criticized.

China should be given leeway on purchasing targets due to the pandemic-related economic downturn, the Senate Finance Committee chairman said.

With the relationship between Washington, DC, and Beijing as fraught as it has been in a generation, the Trump administration runs the risk of making a bad situation worse if the president opts to terminate the U.S.-China phase-one agreement, China analysts tell Inside U.S. Trade.

U.S. and Chinese officials on Tuesday endorsed the status quo for the phase-one trade agreement the two sides signed in January, refuting talk of renegotiation or termination.

China’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization, Zhang Xiangchen, said on Tuesday he was disappointed members had not united more amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, blaming a lack of leadership and trust among the membership.

Renewable energy companies want the Export-Import Bank to broaden the agency’s U.S. content requirements so more of their contracts can qualify for financing and companies can better compete with China, industry representatives said during a bank teleconference this week.

The “Strengthening American Competitiveness” push will begin with a series of teleconferences featuring U.S. businesses; the first is set for Thursday.

The bank called the effort “one of the most significant programs in EXIM’s 86-year history.”