June 2019

Following a week of escalating tensions, allegations that Iran attacked two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, Iran’s threat to increase its stockpile of enriched uranium, and its acknowledged downing of an unmanned U.S. drone, President Donald Trump responded on June 24, 2019 by issuing an executive order sanctioning the Supreme Leader of Iran,…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has created a website to assist persons in navigating the China Section 301 investigation and tariff process. Recognizing that every product subject to a proposed or ongoing Section 301 tariff action is identified by an 8-digit or 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) subheading, the website provides a…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has announced in a Federal Register notice that it will open an electronic portal for submission of China Section 301 product exclusion requests on June 30, 2019. This portal will allow interested U.S. parties to request exclusions for products captured under USTR’s Tranches/List 3 of Harmonized Tariff…

On June 19, 2019, Mexico became the first of the three involved countries to ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA), which is intended to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In a nearly unanimous vote, Mexico’s Senate approved the trade agreement. The bill will now be sent to the Mexican executive branch for…

Please join us Thursday, June 27 at 1 p.m. for a complimentary one-hour webinar on how your company can survive the U.S.-China trade war by navigating the U.S. government’s complex Section 301 tariff process, utilizing the Chinese government’s product exclusion request process and adjusting supply chain activities. During the program, we will:

  • Report from the

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On June 7, 2019, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Iran’s largest petrochemical holding group, Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (PGPIC). In addition to PGPIC, OFAC placed 39 PGPIC subsidiaries and foreign-based sales agents on its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List. According to OFAC, PGPIC was sanctioned for having…

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has published an Interim Final Rule in the Federal Register announcing that it has developed a specific portal (i.e., the ‘‘232 Exclusions Portal’’) for persons submitting exclusion requests, objections to exclusion requests, rebuttals and surrebuttals to replace the use of the federal rulemaking portal (…

After a week of uncertainty, the United States and Mexico reached an agreement in which Mexico will work to stem the tide of migration across its southern border and into the United States, while the Trump administration agreed to forgo the implementation of a 5 percent tariff on the import of goods from Mexico. In…

On June 5, 2019, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) undertook coordinated actions to further restrict travel to Cuba “in order to hold the Cuban regime accountable for its repression of the Cuban people and its support of the…