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☆ Congress Spotlights ‘Serious’ Forced Labor Concerns With Chinese Shopping Sites
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Ana Swanson | Claire Fu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The number of de minimis packages entering the United States has exploded in recent years, to 720 million in 2021, from 220 million in 2016. Based on data submitted by the companies, the report said that Temu and Shein alone are likely responsible for almost 600,000 packages shipped to the United States daily under the de minimis rule. Among teenagers, Shein was the third most popular e-commerce site behind Amazon and Nike, according to a Piper Sandler report issued this spring. As their popularity has grown, so has congressional scrutiny of the firms given their ties to China. Temu, which is based in Boston, is a subsidiary of PDD Holdings, which moved its headquarters to Ireland from China this year.

Persons: Earl Blumenauer, ”, Shein, Piper Sandler Organizations: United States, Customs, Nike, PDD Holdings Locations: United States, United, China, Oregon, Singapore, Boston, Ireland

How India Profits From Its Neutrality in the Ukraine War The Gulf of Kutch in India is home to the world’s largest oil refinery. After Russia invaded Ukraine, tankers laden with Russian oil are an increasingly common sight along this inlet of northwestern India. China and India are buying so much Russian oil now that Moscow is selling more crude than it was before it invaded Ukraine. Russian crude shipments in the Gulf of Kutch this year Total barrels shipped between through May 2023. In December, S. Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, was asked in Parliament about India’s decision to buy Russian crude.

Persons: Narendra Modi, Modi, Biden, Ukraine Price, —, Mukesh Ambani, India’s, Copernicus, ” Organizations: New York Times, Western, Ukraine, International Energy Agency, European Union, Argus Media, Jamnagar, Reliance Industries, Nayara Energy, Rosneft, Port, Southeast, Center, Research, Energy, Clean, United Arab Emirates, Modi government’s Locations: India, Ukraine, Kutch, Russia, SynMax, United States, Europe, Moscow, West, India China, China, Kpler, East, Jamnagar, Gujarat State, Russian, Gulf, Pipeline, Panipat, Mundra, Vadinar, Jamnagar Port Vadinar Refinery Jamnagar, Port, Nayara, Southeast Asia, Africa, Finland, Turkey, Singapore, Sikka, Asia Europe

☆ As U.S. and Chinese Officials Meet, Businesses Temper Their Hopes
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Ana Swanson | David Mccabe | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Foreign direct investment in China has fallen to an 18-year low. “The hope is that high-level dialogues like this can start to inject some certainty for business into an increasingly fraught and unpredictable trade relationship,” he said. Still, as one of the world’s largest consumer markets and home to many factories that supply global businesses, China exerts a powerful pull. On a visit to China this month, Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and owner of Twitter, described the American and Chinese economies as “conjoined twins” and said he opposed to efforts to split them. Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, traveled to China in March and lauded the company’s “symbiotic” relationship with the nation.

Persons: ”, Jake Colvin, Mary Barra, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase, Stephen Schwarzman, Elon Musk, Tesla, Tim Cook Organizations: American Chamber of Commerce, National Foreign Trade Council, General Motors, JPMorgan, Twitter Locations: China, Blackstone

☆ As Ties to China Turn Toxic, Even Chinese Companies Are Breaking Them
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As it expanded internationally, Shein, the rapidly growing fast fashion app, progressively cut ties to its home country, China. Yet the clothing retailer can’t shake the focus on its ties with China. Along with other brands like the viral social app TikTok and shopping app Temu, Shein has become a target of American lawmakers in both parties. As relations between the United States and China turn increasingly rocky, some of China’s most entrepreneurial brands have taken steps to distance themselves from their home country. They have set up new factories and headquarters outside China to serve the United States and other foreign markets, emphasized their foreign ties and scrubbed any mention of “China” from their corporate websites.

Persons: Shein, Chinese Communist Party —, “, Marco Rubio Organizations: Chinese Communist Party, Republican Locations: China, Singapore, Nanjing, Ireland, Indiana, Washington, Florida, United States

☆ Biden Administration Announces Indo-Pacific Deal, Clashing With Industry Groups
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration announced Saturday that it had reached an agreement with 13 other countries in the Indo-Pacific region to coordinate supply chains, in an effort to lessen the countries’ dependence on China for critical products and allow them to better weather crises like wars, pandemics and climate change. The supply chain agreement is the first result of the administration’s trade initiative in the region, called the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. Negotiations are continuing for the other three pillars of the agreement, which focus on facilitating trade and improving conditions for workers, expanding the use of clean energy, and reforming tax structures and fighting corruption. Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce, said the supply chain agreement would deepen America’s economic cooperation with partners in the Indo-Pacific region, helping American companies do business there and making the United States more competitive globally. “Bottom line is, this is about increasing the U.S. economic presence in the region,” she said in a call with reporters Thursday.

☆ The U.S. Needs Minerals for Electric Cars. Everyone Else Wants Them Too.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The United States and Australia announced a partnership to share information and coordinate standards and investment to create more responsible and sustainable supply chains. But figuring out how to access all of the minerals the United States will need will still be a challenge. And although speeches at the G7 emphasized alliances and partnerships, rich countries are still essentially competing for scarce resources. Japan has signed a critical minerals deal with the United States, and Europe is in the midst of negotiating one. But like the United States, those regions have substantially greater demand for critical minerals to feed their own factories than supply to spare.

☆ To Counter China, G7 Countries Borrow Its Economic Playbook
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Jim Tankersley | Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Midway through his face-to-face meeting with President Biden in Indonesia last fall, the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, offered an unsolicited warning. For months, he and his aides had worked to recruit allied countries to impose their own restrictions on sending technology to China. The effort echoed the sort of industrial policy that China had employed to become the world’s manufacturing leader. In Bali, Mr. Xi urged Mr. Biden to abandon it. As Mr. Biden and fellow leaders of the Group of 7 nations meet this weekend in Hiroshima, Japan, a centerpiece of their discussions will be how to rapidly accelerate what has become an internationally coordinated round of vast public investment.

☆ U.S. Tech Espionage Team Unveils First Cases Involving China and Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration announced arrests and criminal charges on Tuesday in five cases involving sanctions evasion and technology espionage efforts linked to Russia, China and Iran. Two Russian nationals were taken into custody last week under accusations of sending aircraft parts to Russia in violation of sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. The announcements were the work of a recently established “technology strike force,” which aims to protect critical American technology or data from theft by hostile nations. The strike force was set up in February and brings together agents with the Commerce and Justice Departments, as well as the F.B.I. Federal agents are working to trace the global movement of U.S. goods and data, as well as the funds used to pay for them.

☆ U.S.-Made Technology Is Flowing to Sanctioned Russian Airlines
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Ana Swanson | Niraj Chokshi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The shipments also increased over the course of last year as Russia recruited global businesses to help it bypass the sanctions. The men are accused of fielding requests for parts, including expensive brake systems for a Boeing 737, from at least three Russian airlines, including two that had been strictly barred from purchasing U.S.-made products through a so-called temporary denial order issued by the Commerce Department. Despite the level of sanctions evasion, airplane shipments into Russia remain significantly lower than before the war. U.S. officials say Russian airlines have been forced to cannibalize planes, breaking them down for spare parts to keep others in operation, as well as turning to Iran for maintenance and parts. Russia’s imports of aircraft and aircraft parts fell from $3.45 billion annually before the invasion to only about $286 million afterward, according to The Observatory of Economic Complexity, a data visualization platform that explores global trade dynamics.

The China Development Forum, a high-profile, government-hosted conference with a who’s who of international executives in attendance, was a moment for Beijing to renew its efforts to win over foreign businesses. Businesses from outside China “are not foreigners, but family,” said Wang Wentao, China’s commerce minister. State media reported that the chief executives of Apple, Pfizer and Procter & Gamble were at the forum, held in late March. Mr. Wang pledged to remove obstacles preventing firms from investing more — 2023, he declared, was “Invest in China year.”The good will did not last long. The recent targeting of consulting and advisory firms with foreign ties through raids, detainments and arrests has reignited concerns about doing business in China.

Biden administration rules released on Friday that will determine which companies and manufacturers can benefit from new solar industry tax credits are being criticized by U.S.-based makers of solar products, who say the guidelines do not go far enough to try to lure manufacturing back from China. The Treasury Department, in guidance issued on Friday, said it would offer a 10 percent additional tax credit for facilities assembling solar panels in the United States, even if they import the silicon wafers used to make those panels from foreign countries. Under the Biden administration’s new climate legislation, solar and wind farms can apply for a 30 percent tax credit on the costs of their facilities. Senior administration officials told reporters on Thursday that they were trying to take a balanced approach, one that leaned toward forcing supply chains to return to the United States. But China’s dominance of the global solar industry has created a tricky calculus for the Biden administration, which wants to promote U.S. manufacturing of solar products but also ensure a plentiful supply of low-cost solar panels to reduce carbon emissions.

☆ Congress Clashes With Biden Over Tariffs on Illegal Chinese Solar Panels
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Senate voted on Wednesday to reinstate tariffs on solar panels from Chinese companies in Southeast Asia that had been found to be coming into the United States in violation of trade rules. The measure, which passed by a vote of 56 to 41, had already been approved by the House. It sets up a showdown with the Biden administration, which had temporarily halted the tariffs to try to ensure that the country had an adequate supply of solar panels in the fight against climate change. But the measure, which several key Democrats supported, was a notable rebuke of the Biden administration’s actions. Critics have said that Mr. Biden’s decision not to impose the tariffs on the Chinese solar makers violated U.S. trade rules and failed to defend American workers.

☆ Commerce Dept. Outlines Plans to Fund Cutting-Edge Chip Research
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Ana Swanson | Don Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The plans are part of the Biden administration’s effort to reinvigorate semiconductor manufacturing and ensure that the United States has a steady supply of chips necessary to feed its factories and support its national defense. The Commerce Department has been charged with doling out $50 billion to revitalize the industry, including $11 billion devoted to research and development. “It should be on areas that no one company can solve alone,” she said. Companies, universities, lawmakers and local governments have been lobbying the administration to set up an outpost of the new organization in their area. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader and an author of the legislation that funded the semiconductor investment, said in a statement Tuesday that he was pushing to make Albany, N.Y., a site for the new organization.

☆ Yellen to Call for ‘Constructive’ China Relationship
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen on Thursday will call for a “constructive” and “healthy” economic relationship between the United States and China, one in which the two nations work together to confront challenges like climate change, according to excerpts from prepared remarks. Ms. Yellen’s comments, which she will deliver at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, will strike a notably positive tone about the U.S.-China relationship following months of heightened tensions between the two nations, which have the world’s largest economies. Ms. Yellen is expected to stress the importance of securing American national security interests, as well as of protecting human rights. She will also emphasize that targeted actions the United States has taken against China — like cutting it off from the world’s most advanced semiconductors — are aimed purely at protecting U.S. national security.

☆ How Russia Pays for War
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Lazaro Gamio | Ana Swanson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +17 min

Invasion –84% Imports from Russia –20% Germany Current total trade $4.8 billion Since invasion –3% Exports to Russia Avg. Invasion –51% Imports from Russia +38% The Netherlands Current total trade $2 billion Since invasion +32% Exports to Russia Avg. Invasion –52% Imports from Russia +74% China Current total trade $15 billion Since invasion +64% Exports to Russia Avg. Invasion +24% Imports from Russia +98% India Current total trade $3.3 billion Since invasion +310% Exports to Russia Avg. Invasion –19% Imports from Russia +430% Turkey Current total trade $6.2 billion Since invasion +198% Exports to Russia Avg.

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