Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said no decision has been made yet on whether there will be an executive order limiting outbound investment in China. "It's still something being discussed in the administration and the timing of it is not yet certain," she said on "Face the Nation" from China, before she returned from a diplomatic visit there. "But I wanted to explain to my Chinese counterparts that if we go forward with this executive order, that we will do so in a transparent and narrowly targeted way." She said what's being considered is only for "very narrow high technology areas," and should not significantly impact overall investment in China.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she is “concerned” about China’s new export controls on critical minerals used to produce semiconductors (see 2307060053), saying the U.S. is still assessing the impact but that they “remind us of the importance of building resilient and diversified supply chains.” Speaking during a July 7 roundtable with American businesses in China, Yellen said the administration is working to make sure U.S. companies are competing with China on a “level playing field.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in an April 20 speech, said China's state-driven economic policies have spillover effects. "The actions of China’s government have had dramatic implications for the location of global manufacturing activity," she said at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. "And they have harmed workers and firms in the U.S. and around the world."

A recent final rule creating a new labeling standard for the Bolivian liquor Singani conflicts with Bolivia’s own standard for the brandy and creates an artificial cut-off that excludes much Singani from being able to be labeled as such under the standard, the National Association of Beverage Importers said in a Jan. 12 news release.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau released a final rule Jan. 12 that adds Singani as a specific type of brandy derived from grapes. Under the final rule, Singani may be manufactured only in Bolivia under Bolivian laws and regulations for its manufacture, and must be bottled at not less than 40% alcohol by volume. Singani bottled at less than 40% alcohol by volume would need to be labeled as diluted Singani. Effective Feb. 13, bottles of Singani may be labeled as such without the brandy designation, TTB said.

Although the IRS has no ability to push out the deadlines for battery or vehicle assembly in North America, or the deadlines for sourcing critical minerals domestically or from FTA partners, it is seeking comments on how to determine where assembly was done, and how to define value, all of which may make it easier or harder for electric vehicles to qualify for consumer tax credits.

The U.S. is banning the import of gold from Russia, starting June 28, but Russia-origin gold that is already outside the country is allowed to enter.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is proposing to amend its wine labeling and advertising regulations to remove a prohibition on statements that a wine contains distilled spirits, it said in a notice published June 13. “This proposed deregulatory action will allow wine makers and importers to provide additional information to consumers about their wines, while still providing consumers with adequate and non-misleading information as to the identity and quality of the products they purchase,” TTB said. Comments are due Aug. 12.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau recently issued a final rule making another set of changes to its labeling regulations for distilled spirits and malt beverages. In this second set of amendments based on a proposal issued by the agency in November 2018 (see 1811230015), the agency is reorganizing the regulations for clarity, incorporating its current policies into the regulations and adopting liberalizing changes that bring requirements for distilled spirits or malt beverages into line with those for wine. The final rule, effective March 11, “will not require industry members to make changes to alcohol beverage labels or advertisements but instead provide additional flexibility to make certain changes going forward,” TTB said.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, acknowledging that removing Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods would make some difference in inflation, didn't directly answer a question about whether they should stay, but said that U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai is "revisiting the phase one trade deal and recognizing requests to reduce tariffs in some areas." During a "Face the Nation" appearance Nov. 14, Yellen was also asked what the Biden administration could do to unclog the supply chain. "We have been talking with the operators of ports in Los Angeles, in Long Beach, in Savannah, trying to understand why there are such backlogs of ships waiting to off-load their goods."