The U.S. Trade Representative has continued to review requests for exemptions from tariffs on Chinese exports despite the government shutdown. As at Jan. 10 there 1,592 companies had made 13,348 applications. Decisions have only been made on 2,716 applications – or 20.0% of the total – with 63.7% of those having been denied. All but one of the petitions reviewed in the past three weeks have been rejected. Going forward the USTR has reduced capacity due to the shutdown, making further decisions less likely for now. There is a risk that investment in manufacturing infrastructure is dela...