Below is a summary of top stories this week.  To stay up-to-date, be sure to sign up to receive our emails and follow us on social media. 

• More on the situation in China: the U.S. consulate in Chengdu officially shut down in retaliation for Houston closure.

• More on the EU tariffs and Airbus situation here

• Several weeks ago, France imposed a digital tax on U.S. companies that do not do business there- U.S. response and recap here.  France’s President Macron has recently stated that he wanted the European Union to work towards levying an EU-wide digital tax on big tech multinationals.  Ireland opposes it.

• EU to consider new tax proposals to repay new debt from the breakthrough 750 billion euros deal for COVID-19 recovery.

• WTO semi-annual trade monitoring report states that member countries have imposed trade restrictions on approximately $1.7 trillion in importing goods since 2009.  “Between mid-October 2019 and mid-May 2020, WTO members implemented 363 new trade and trade-related measures, 198 of them trade-facilitating and 165 trade-restrictive. Most of them, 256 (about 71 per cent) were linked to the pandemic,” the WTO said.

• Free Trade Agreement watch: the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Vietnam will enter into force on August 1, 2020 and will liberalize the majority of the import duties imposed by the EU and Vietnam for goods originating from the other country.  Here is a summary from Ernst & Young

• Be sure to visit U.S. Dept of Commerce/ITA site for information on cases, duties and other announcements here.