Washington Update

President Donald Trump’s Cabinet is aligned on a need for more tariffs, though the administration has yet to outline exactly when and how to do so, including determining which products and countries to target, as well as how high to set the duties. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated this week that Trump plans to levy tariffs on Mexico and Canada on February 1 and that he is still “considering” imposing a 10 percent tariff on all Chinese goods on the same day.

President Donald Trump opted not to raise tariffs on China during the first week of his administration. Instead, he on Monday issued a regulatory freeze and directed executive department heads to review all new rules published under the Biden administration that have not taken effect, a move that could halt several rules with operational impacts for USCBC member companies.  The White House also issued a trade policy memorandum later that evening directing federal agencies, primarily the Department of Commerce, Treasury, and the Office of the US Trade Representative, to conduct a top-to-bottom review of US trade policy.

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security on Wednesday issued the Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion interim final rule, geared towards curbing China’s access to cutting-edge chips used in AI. The new rule imposes country-specific export caps on chips needed to train AI models, proposing a three-tier licensing system that determines the type and quantity of advanced chips a country can procure based on its relationship with the United States.

The Department of Defense (DOD) on Monday added prominent tech entities Tencent and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), along with dozens of other Chinese companies, to its 1260H list of Chinese military companies. According to a department readout, these entities were added because of their involvement in China’s military-civil fusion strategy.

President-elect Donald Trump led the charge on Wednesday to convince House Republicans to abandon a bipartisan compromise bill to fund the government until March, increasing the chances of a government shutdown beginning today. The continuing resolution (CR), which was released on Tuesday, included multiple China-related provisions, including an outbound investment review proposal.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) on Thursday released a comprehensive package of final rules designed to further impair China’s ability to produce advanced semiconductors.

As secretary of commerce, Lutnick is slated to lead the Trump administration’s “tariff and trade” agenda, especially if he is indeed given authority over certain functions of the USTR.

President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping will meet tomorrow on the sidelines of the 2024 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, which kicked off this week in Lima, Peru.

Upon beginning his second term, President-elect Donald Trump is expected to make good on his campaign promise to drastically raise US tariffs, especially those on Chinese imports, upending years of US trade policy and potentially leading to a renewed trade war.

The Department of the Treasury on Monday released a final rule implementing President Joe Biden’s August 2023 executive order on “Addressing United States Investments in Certain National Security Technologies and Products in Countries of Concern.”