USA Opens Punitive Investigation into China’s Cooperation with Some Southeast Asian Countries

The trade war launched by the United States against China is sucking in, like a vortex, more and more countries and companies around the world. This time, some Southeast Asian companies have come under the scrutiny of the US International Trade Commission. The US Commission announced that it will try to determine whether these companies helped China circumvent the increased tariffs previously imposed on China by the US government. According to the news portal The Hill, the US government agency will investigate some manufacturers based in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam that “were used by Beijing to circumvent duties imposed by the USA on components for the production of photovoltaic panels.”

But US sanctions certainly can’t stop or slow China’s international contacts. On Friday, June 7, Brazil’s National Development Bank (BNDES) signed contracts and memoranda of understanding totaling $1.6 billion with China Development Bank (CDB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The agreements will allow Brazil to accumulate funds to finance some sustainable projects in this Latin American country. Some agreements and memoranda include strategic investments in the renewable energy, logistics, and sustainable urban mobility sectors. In addition, a ten-year loan agreement was signed for a maximum amount of $735 million to finance certain infrastructure and industrial projects in Brazil in the sectors of electricity, manufacturing, agriculture, mining, water, climate change, and in favor of green development. China and Brazil are the two founding countries of the BRICS group and will be able to continue contacts at the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting to be held June 10-11 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Both Brazil and China have announced that their foreign ministers Mauro Vieira and Wang Yi will attend the meeting with their counterparts from the BRICS group. The results of the meeting will be presented at the group’s 16th Summit, which will be held in Kazan, Russia, on October 22-24. Russia is currently the rotating president of BRICS, while Brazil will assume its duties of the group’s head on January 1, 2025.