Last week, the White House announced a 100% Section 232 tariff on large drones and critical components, citing their dual-use applications. The duties are set to take effect on September 3.
The “One Belt One Road” (OBOR) initiative, first announced in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping, is an extremely ambitious and far-reaching initiative with significant potential to improve the social and economic structure in Asia, Europe, and northeastern Africa, where more than half of the world’s population lives. The OBOR initiative proposes to improve the transportation infrastructure to give rise to closer and larger economic, social, cultural, and political ties. This win-win initiative should benefit more than 50% of the world’s population living in that region and contribute to political stability and peace in the world.
Providing a small amount of stability in a year of significant changes for cross-border ecommerce, the Chinese government recently halted a move to increase regulation — and costs — of foreign goods purchased online by consumers in China. Observers believe the measure is a temporary stopgap as officials work to establish additional procedures for scrutinizing yet unspecified types of imports.
Any company with more than a small presence in China will likely need to conduct an internal investigation in China at some point. Companies can take certain steps to minimize headaches when such an investigation is needed.
