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International Issues Update 2023/34

By September 15, 2023No Comments

ON OUR DESKS

  • Analyzing the European Commission President’s State of the EU speech and the outlook for the Green Deal and Digital Policy
  • Assisting with identifying reliable sales representatives in emerging markets
  • Preparing submission for House hearing on trade preference reforms
  • Assessing national priorities for UNGA meetings

These are just examples of client service. How can we help you? Email any IBC counsellor for assistance or consult our issues list to find the expert you’re looking for.

WIBC DISCUSSIONS

In case you missed it:

  • September 12: DFC Managing Director of Business Development and Impact Roxanne Alozie, Opportunities for international business engagement with the DFC

Upcoming WIBC Events:

  • September 21: Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Trade Policy and Negotiations Tony Fernandes, International trade policy and negotiations affecting international business

REMINDER: Our client portal, WIBC calendar, and other resources are available at redflag.global/washington.

WIBC discussions are open to WIBC members only. Not a member? Contact Alix for membership inquiries.

YOU NEED TO KNOW

G20 

India hosted the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi from September 9-10, resulting in several new U.S.-led initiatives and the permanent expansion of the group. The Joint Leaders’ Declaration notably softened language regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine, but it also included new and notable language on debt relief, reforming multilateral development banks, financing climate resilience, and digital technology. The African Union also permanently joined the G20 as a result of the summit.

The United States announced new initiatives regarding infrastructure and biofuels. On the sidelines of a meeting on President Biden’s signature Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI), the United States announced infrastructure investments in the Lobito Corridor, covering Angola, Zambia and the DRC, a India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, and additional investments in countries like El Salvador, the Philippines, and Mozambique. Six countries also joined the United States in launching the Biofuels Alliance, which will secure “the supply of biofuels, ensuring these biofuels remain affordable and are produced sustainably.” Despite China’s protests, at the conclusion of the Summit it was announced that the United States would host the G20 in 2026.

President Biden met with China’s second-highest leader, Premier Li Qiang, on the sidelines of the G20, marking the highest-level meeting between the two countries since Biden and Xi’s meeting last fall. The two discussed global stability, and following the meeting President Biden told the press that “I don’t think [China’s economic slowdown] is going to cause China to invade Taiwan… as a matter of fact, the opposite, probably doesn’t have the same capacity that it had before.”

Contact: Ethan Knecht, Pat Sheehy

Vietnam

President Biden traveled to Vietnam September 10-11 following the conclusion of the G20, meeting with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.  The two leaders announced the elevation of the U.S.-Vietnam relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership.  Some notable outcomes include U.S. support for Vietnam’s manufacturing, infrastructure development, agriculture, and supply chains via forthcoming actions by the U.S. International Development Financial Corporation (DFC).  The leaders announced collaboration on global health security and medical devices. Finally, Biden applauded Vietnam’s progress in significant market-based economic reforms and committed to reviewing a September 8 request by Vietnam for treatment as a market economy in anti dumping procedures “as expeditiously as possible, in accordance with U.S. law.”

Contact: Ethan Knecht, Pat Sheehy

Quick takes

  • The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously passed legislation that would establish the first United States-Taiwan taxation agreement. The bill would cut by two-thirds the withholding tax rate on income earned in the United States by qualified Taiwanese entities. 
  • The Treasury Department hosted the second annual CFIUS conference September 14, with  Secretary Janet Yellen stressing CFIUS’ commitment to enforcing mitigation agreements and other restrictions imposed on transactions by the foreign investment screening committee. Yellen’s remarks come following reports that technology of concern has flowed to China, despite mitigation agreements.
  • The State and Treasury Departments on September 14 sanctioned approximately 150 Russian and third country parties supporting the war in Ukraine and engaging in sanctions evasion. Sanctioned parties include numerous maritime and shipping firms in Türkiye, an engineering firm in the UAE, a Finnish logistics network and hundreds of Russian parties. 
  • Special Presidential Advisor for the Americas Chris Dodd used a visit to Lima to encourage Peru’s participation in the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP); separately the Council of the Americas issued a report advocating for the expansion of the USMCA, a concept that is endorsed in the forthcoming “Americas Act” legislation being prepared by Senators Bill Cassidy (D-LA) and Michael Bennet (D-CO).

NOTICES, BILLS & HEARINGS

Federal Register Notices

Newly Introduced Legislation

House

  • H.R.5512 (Sherman, D-CA) – Would require United States financial institutions to ensure entities and persons owned or controlled by the institution comply with financial sanctions on the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus to the same extent as the institution itself, and for other purposes.
  • H.R.5488 (Johnson, R-LA) – Would amend chapter 111 of title 28, United States Code, to increase transparency and oversight of third-party funding by foreign persons, to prohibit third-party funding by foreign states and sovereign wealth funds, and for other purposes.
  • H.R. 5447 (Ogles, R-TN) Would prohibit any transactions using Alipay in the United States.
  • H.R.5417 (Tenney, R-NY) –  Would require the denial of admission to the United States for individuals subject to sanctions pursuant to Executive Order 13876 (Imposing Sanctions with Regard to Iran), and for other purposes.
  • H.R.5409 (Luetkemeyer, R-MO) – Would amend the Defense Production Act of 1950 to require the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to determine whether a national security review is needed for reportable agricultural land transactions referred by the Secretary of Agriculture, and for other purposes.
  • H.R.5404 (Fitzgerald, R-WI) – Would direct the Attorney General to prepare a report on the Department of Justice activities related to countering Chinese national security threats, and for other purposes.
  • H.R.5375 (Meeks, D-NY)- Would require a strategy for bolstering engagement and cooperation between the United States, Australia, India, and Japan and to seek to establish a Quad Intra-Parliamentary Working Group to facilitate closer cooperation on shared interests and values.
  • H.R.5374 (Meeks, D-NY) – Would provide for export approvals for high-performance computers to India.
  • H.R.5370 (Hill, R-AR) – Would declare the Russian Federation an Aggressor State and provide for the transfer of blocked assets of such a country to the United States to be used for the reconstruction of Ukraine, and for other purposes.
  • H.R.5311 (Lieu, D-CA) Would preempt State data security vulnerability mandates and decryption requirements.
  • H.J.Res.89 (McClellan, D-VA) – Would require the advice and consent of the Senate or an Act of Congress to suspend, terminate, or withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty and authorizing related litigation, and for other purposes.

Senate

  • S.2823 (Rubio, R-FL) – Would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to safeguard beneficial tax treatment on certain expenses from bolstering the research and development sectors in foreign entities of concern.
  • S.2805 (Kennedy, R-LA) – Would amend chapter 111 of title 28, United States Code, to increase transparency and oversight of third-party funding by foreign persons, to prohibit third-party funding by foreign states and sovereign wealth funds, and for other purposes.
  • S.2774 (Cruz, R-TX) – Would require the denial of admission to the United States for individuals subject to sanctions pursuant to Executive Order 13876 (Imposing Sanctions with Regard to Iran), and for other purposes.
  •  S.2761 (Lankford, R-OK) – Would deter conflict in the Taiwan Strait by establishing conditions for suspending normal trade relations with the PRC.
  • S.2752 (Lankford, R-OK) – Would establish the position of Country China Officer to monitor and counter financing projects around the world that are backed by the PRC.
  • S.2750 (Hawley, R-MO) – Would impose restrictions on the investment in Chinese companies by tax-exempt entities.
  •  S.2748 (Murphy, D-CT) – Would authorize the extension of nondiscriminatory treatment (normal trade relations treatment) to the products of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

Upcoming Congressional Hearings

House

Senate

WHO’S WHO

Arrivals

  • Brianne Todd, NSC Director for Central Asian Affairs 
  • Dr. Eileen Donahoe, State Department Special Envoy and Coordinator for Digital Freedom
  • Ervin Bushati, Albanian Ambassador to the United States
  • Eyang Garrison, Senate Agriculture Committee Majority Staff Director 
  • Penny Pritzker, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery

Want more scoops on personnel moves? Find the most recent Who’s Who here.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Looking farther ahead? Find the most recent full international events calendar here.

Any issue areas you would like highlighted? Have a specific monitoring request? Reach out to us.

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