January 2020

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned eight individuals and one entity in response to Russia’s continued aggression toward Ukraine and attempted occupation of Crimea, which the United States continues to view as an illegitimate annexation since it occurred in 2014. OFAC has designated and placed on the Specially…

On January 29, 2019, President Donald Trump signed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and in remarks at the White House stated that the agreement is “the largest, fairest, most balanced, and modern trade agreement ever achieved.” He added that the agreement is “a colossal victory for our farmers, ranchers, energy workers, factory workers, and American…

On January 24, 2020, President Donald Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation directing the Department of Commerce to adjust the tariff rate on imports of derivative steel and aluminum products into the United States. In earlier proclamations (see Trump and Trade Update of March 8, 2018), the president directed Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross to…

In a Memorandum Opinion for the Deputy Counsel to President Donald Trump, the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (DOJ) determined that “the President may direct the Secretary of Commerce not to publish a confidential report to the President under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, notwithstanding a recently enacted statute…

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has published its final regulations to fully implement the updated national security review process of foreign direct investments in the United States as set forth in the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA). This law made various amendments to the CFIUS review process, including…

The U.S. Senate has approved by a vote of 89 to 10 the required implementing legislation for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). After months of negotiations by Democrats in the House of Representatives with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer (see Trump and Trade Updates of December 10, 2019 and December 16, 2019), H.R. 5430 was…

On January 15, 2020, after two years of negotiations and retaliatory measures in a tariff trade war, the United States and China signed a “phase one” trade agreement that President Donald Trump called “historic” and “transformative.” In remarks during the signing ceremony, Trump said, “Today, we take a momentous step — one that has never…

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced this week that the current Section 301 tariff of 15 percent on List 4A Chinese products will be reduced to 7.5 percent as of 12:01 a.m. on February 14, 2020. This reduction, which will be formally published in an upcoming Federal Register notice, covers all HTS subheadings in…

On January 10, 2020, President Donald Trump issued “Executive Order on Imposing Sanctions with Respect to Additional Sectors of Iran,” implementing further sanctions on Iran and blocking the assets and property of additional senior Iranian government officials. The executive order authorizes economic sanctions on entities operating in the construction, mining, manufacturing or textiles sectors of…

According to recently released U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, the agency has assessed, as a result of tariffs implemented through U.S. government actions under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and Sections 201 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, approximately $52.9 billion in import duties as of January…