The Titanium Sponge Working Group (TSWG), established under the Trump administration in 2020, has released a report highlighting increased dependence of the U.S. on imported titanium sponge, a crucial raw material for titanium metal production. According to the TSWG's findings, U.S. dependency on imported titanium sponge has risen dramatically from 68% in 2020 to 100% today, emphasizing a severe reliance on overseas supplies. These findings underscore the urgency for measures ensuring access to this critical input, which plays a pivotal role in the defense and industrial sectors, particularly in aerospace applications.

The Uyghur Region produces between one third and one half of the world’s solar-grade polysilicon, as well as much as 32% of global metallurgical grade silicon (MGS), polysilicon’s pre-cursor material.    So if it's a solar panel, the odds are good slavery had a hand making it. Alan Crawford and Laura Murphy of Sheffield Hallam University published a review of the solar panel supply chain and its potential exposure to modern slavery, and the findings were discouraging. “Despite significant global pressure for increased transparency, information regarding solar industry sourcing is becoming less transparent over time, thwarting the world’s ability to source ethically,” the Authors write.

House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) led a bipartisan delegation of House members to Seoul, South Korea where they participated in bilateral meetings held by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and other prominent Korean government officials focused on U.S.-Korea economic relations.   The twenty-person delegation visited Korea on the first leg of its trip to four East Asian countries. In Cambodia Pan Sorasak, Minister of Commerce, met on August 2 with the lawmakers.

Tuesday the  Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF) published an updated Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Strategy to Prevent the Importation of Goods Mined, Produced, or Manufactured with Forced Labor in the People’s Republic of China.   

The Department of the Treasury, as Chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), released its Annual Report to Congress for calendar year 2022. The Committee’s workload remained high with a record number of filed transactions based on the expanded jurisdiction provided by the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), mandatory filings in certain instances, and more sophisticated processes for identifying non-notified transactions.

The House of Representatives passed H.R. 1684, the Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act. The bill would require the Secretary of State to submit an annual report to Congress regarding the …

Rebar, Citric Acid, Corrosion Resistant Steel, Passenger Tires, Forged Fluid End Blocks, Common Alloy Aluminum Sheet, Certain Softwood Lumber   by the International …

By an overwhelming vote of 91 to 6 the Senate approved an amendment to the defense reauthorization bill that for the first time would impose notification requirements on US cutting edge technology outbound investments to China and other “countries of concern.” The notification requirement would apply to artificial intelligence, quantum industries, advanced semiconductors and micro-electronics, hypersonics, satellite-based communications and networked laser scanning systems with dual-use applications.

China is providing crucial support for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine by helping the Kremlin evade Western sanctions and is likely supplying Moscow with key technology, according to a new US intelligence report. China has dramatically expanded its purchase of Russian oil, gas and other energy exports since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February last year and used its financial system to allow Russia “to conduct transactions unfettered of Western interdiction,” said the assessment released Thursday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

World Trade Organization General Council Chair Ambassador Athaliah Lesiba Molokomme of Botswana is planning an informal meeting on September 26 to discuss two different forms of industrialization policies as proposed by the European Union on the one hand and the African Group on the other. The African Group of more than 50 countries is calling for “policy space for industrial development,” making a case for rebalancing trade rules to promote industrialization and to address emerging challenges such as climate change, concentration of production and digital industrialization.

Pakistan has proposed a draft decision for the World Trade Organization’s next ministerial conference that calls for substantial “response measures” and the “needed space” with requisite policy tools for developing and least-developed countries to tackle unforeseen multiple crises arising from climate change and the worsening international economy, WTD has learned. Islamabad underscored the need for a “pro-active decision by WTO Members that would allow the needed space for developing countries and LDCs facing a crisis to respond expeditiously and with required policy tools to avoid deepening and spreading of the crisis.”

The Chair of the World Trade Organization's General Council, Ambassador Athaliah Lesiba Molokomme of Botswana, has laid out a comprehensive roadmap for the organization's 13th Ministerial Conference …

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said yesterday she is looking to finalize the three pillars of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework under her charge by November. Ms. Raimondo has jurisdiction over the supply chains, anti-corruption and infrastructure and decarbonization pillars. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai is in charge of the trade pillar. Ms. Raimondo has …

The Commerce and Defense Departments announced yesterday that they have signed a Memorandum of Agreement to expand collaboration to strengthen the US semiconductor defense industrial base. The agreement will increase information sharing between the departments to facilitate close coordination on the CHIPS for America’s incentives program, ensuring that their respective investments position the United States to produce semiconductor chips essential to national security and defense programs.

The Administration is not operating on a timetable for releasing highly-anticipated new export control rules on cutting-edge technology, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Wednesday. The focus instead is on getting the final rules right, so that US national security is protected but companies are not prevented from selling readily-available technology, she said at a program sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute.

China is calling for maintaining “the stability of global industrial and supply chains” at the World Trade Organization to ensure “an open, non-discriminatory and predictable Multilateral Trading System,” our correspondent reports. At the concluding day of the WTO’s General Council meeting Tuesday, China – in a veiled hit at the United States – called on WTO members to adopt “ a responsible attitude” for strengthening cooperation and for restoring the stable operation of global industrial and supply chains as soon as possible, and promote steady recovery of the world economy.”

US steel producers and workers are warning that recent Administration guidance on rules for implementing the domestic content bonus credit requirements for solar and other renewable energy electricity generation projects under the Inflation Reduction Act could harm domestic producers by allowing the use of foreign steel. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the groups noted that the Treasury Department’s guidance would allow firms to still qualify for the 10 percent tax credit even if imported steel is used.

  Justice, Commerce and the Treasury Department issued a joint compliance note focusing on the voluntary self-disclosure policies that apply to US sanctions, export controls and other national security laws, including recent updates to some of those policies. The July 26 note marks the second collective effort by the three agencies to inform the private sector about enforcement trends and provide guidance to the business community on compliance with US sanctions and export laws.

The US international goods trade deficit was $87.8 billion in June, down $4 billion from $91.9 billion in May, the Commerce Department said yesterday in an advance report.

The prospects for a robust dispute settlement system undergirding a strong enforcement pillar at the World Trade Organization appear grim given continued disagreements among members about reform, our …