Exclusive | Senior US official may raise Russia trade during Hong Kong trip next week, sources say

Scott Shaw will try to ‘iron out problems’ between Hong Kong and the US and will also travel to Beijing, according to people familiar with the matter

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US Department of Commerce official Scott Shaw is expected to visit Hong Kong “at the end of August”, according to a source. Photo: Edmond So

Published: 4:30pm, 21 Aug 2024

Senior US Department of Commerce official Scott Shaw will visit Hong Kong and Beijing next week to meet his counterparts and discuss issues related to trade and potential sanctions, according to people familiar with the matter.

They said Shaw was likely to be the last senior American trade official under the Joe Biden administration to visit Hong Kong ahead of the November presidential election and suggested that the trip was partly to warn the city not to help Russia evade sanctions.

The two sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

One person familiar with the trip arrangements said Shaw, who is deputy assistant secretary for China and Mongolia, would arrive in Hong Kong “at the end of August”.

He said Shaw would meet his counterparts in the city to discuss trade issues and try to “iron out some problems” between Hong Kong and the United States.

Scott Shaw, deputy assistant secretary for China and Mongolia at the US Department of Commerce. Photo: Handout

The visit comes about three months after the US imposed sanctions on more than a dozen companies in mainland China and Hong Kong for their alleged support of Russia’s war in Ukraine. They were among a round of nearly 300 fresh sanctions imposed in May.