Even though the Joe Biden administration will have a very different approach to trade than did the Trump administration, that will not mean a wholesale rejection of what its predecessors did, analysts said during a Center for Strategic and International Studies webinar Jan. 21.
The New York Times, relying on a Horizon Advisory report that used press accounts and government announcements of workers transported from Xinjiang, said that Chinese producers of polysilicon could be compromised by forced labor. The story, published Jan. 8, acknowledged that the news articles and announcements suggest that the number of transferred workers is very small compared with the overall factory workforce. But U.S. law bans imports of any input with any amount of forced labor. The companies identified by consultancy Horizon Advisory supply more than a third of the world's polysilicon, which is used to make solar panels, according to the report. Nathan Picarsic, a founder of Horizon Advisory, is quoted as saying “what the firm had documented was likely 'just the tip of the iceberg.' If Americans are buying solar panels made with materials from these Chinese companies, he said, 'I would say you are complicit in perpetuating this Chinese industrial policy that suppresses and disenfranchises human beings.'”
Blueberry growers, importers and distributors have formed a trade group called The Blueberry Coalition for Progress & Health to argue that there should not be tariffs or quotas on imported blueberries. In a Jan. 6 press release, the group said that 80% of imported fresh blueberries enter either before U.S. production begins in earnest in late April or after it peters out in early September. They said that even though there is some U.S. production competing with imports, even Georgia only sells 10% of its crop before that peak period. But Florida competes most directly with Mexican imports, and Florida representatives had pushed for trade remedies to protect them (see 2009020016). The International Trade Commission will hear from those for and against trade restrictions on blueberries on Jan. 12.
Amazon bought 11 Boeing 767-300 aircraft -- seven from Delta and four from WestJet -- that will join its leased air cargo network by 2022, it said Jan. 5. The goal is to continue delivering goods to customers “in the way that they expect from Amazon, and purchasing our own aircraft is a natural next step,” said Sarah Rhoads, vice president-Amazon Global Air. The company will continue to rely on third-party carriers to operate its fleet, it said.
The National Association of Beverage Importers accused the U.S. trade representative of throwing gasoline on the fire of the Airbus-Boeing dispute on his way out the door (see 2012310010). “The rationale of the timing selected by the EU Commission for the timing of the trade volume determination is a technical argument at best and one that does not merit the potential risk of the EU simply retaliating,” NABI President Robert Tobiassen said in an emailed news release Dec. 31.
A new report summarizing town halls convened by Farmers for Free Trade says the elimination of the steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico “went a long way toward stabilizing these export markets,” and that grain prices have recovered, but that more free trade deals are critical to support farmers and rural economies. The report, released Dec. 15, was highlighted in a webinar.
Though TVs with the largest screen sizes maintained their dominance in the mix of October imports coming into the U.S., shipments skewed toward sets with screen sizes under 45 inches, according to Census Bureau data accessed Dec. 13 through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. October imports of laptops and tablets, meanwhile, continued their torrid growth trend, recording the category’s highest monthly volume in six years.
Chemicals are not among the top imports under the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program -- travel goods, jewelry, car parts, and lamps are -- but chemical distributors are still anxious that the program be renewed before it expires. Eric Byer, CEO of the National Association of Chemical Distributors, said in a phone interview that about 50% of his 250 members benefit from GSP tariff breaks. He said last time GSP expired, it took a couple of months to get reimbursed even after GSP was restored. He gave an example of a small company near Philadelphia that had to pay $250,000 in additional tariffs during the expiration, for a company that only had about 25 employees. Byer said citric acid is imported by many of his members, and if GSP expires, a 6% tariff will be applied to that citric acid coming from Thailand. Erin Getz, coordinator of governmental affairs for NACD, said 110 million pounds annually is imported from Thailand.
The Photronics display business in the fiscal fourth quarter “typically sees a slight seasonal decrease in demand,” but the normal seasonal decline in the quarter that ended Oct. 31 “was exacerbated by pockets of softness in some sectors, and a negative impact from U.S. trade sanctions against Huawei,” Chief Financial Officer John Jordan said on a Dec. 9 investor call. Photronics supplies photomasks to panel makers.
China's attempts at using economic tools, such as export controls on rare earth minerals or punishing imports from Australia, have only been somewhat successful, according to Maximilian Ernst, the speaker on the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies webinar Dec. 7, called “How to Respond to China’s Carrots and Sticks? Prospects of a Transatlantic Response to Chinese Economic Coercion.” Ernst is researching Chinese coercion for a Ph.D.