China

Trade policy issues, which have taken center stage during President Trump’s tenure, will remain prominent no matter who wins the presidency next month, trade lawyers said this week.

The White House National Security Council on Thursday issued a government-wide strategy to coordinate the promotion and defense of 20 critical and emerging technologies, a plan the administration says is intended to counter Chinese and Russian technological development in areas of national security concern.

U.S. World Trade Organization proposals on special and differential treatment and market-oriented conditions are gaining traction in Geneva, where some members backed the initiatives at the General Council on Tuesday, but their advance remains unlikely as major members still are staunchly opposed.

“They still have time to make the goal and make the purchase amounts that they had committed to very, very publicly.”

Trade policy should only be one aspect of the U.S. government’s response to China’s technological rise, a senior Pentagon research official said this week, calling on the U.S. to focus more on investing in research and development if it hopes to maintain a strategic advantage over China in high-tech areas.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security on Tuesday finalized an amendment to its export control rules intended to expand its ability to block products that could be used to perpetuate humans-rights abuses.

“I think it underscores the fact that there's a schism between the working men and women of America, particularly in blue-collar manufacturing, and the globalist elites who run our multinational corporations.”

The U.S. violated World Trade Organization rules with its recently imposed restrictions on Chinese-owned social media platforms TikTok and WeChat, China argued on Friday in Geneva.