June 2020

On June 29, 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States was ending exports of U.S.-origin defense equipment to Hong Kong and “will take steps toward imposing the same restrictions on U.S. defense and dual-use technologies to Hong Kong as it does for China.” The secretary noted that the United States “can…

On June 25, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that its recent designations to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Entities (SDN) List targeted Iran’s steel, aluminum, copper, and iron sectors. OFAC designated eight entities operating in the Iranian metals sector including companies from Iran, the United…

On June 25, 2020, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced that it would be delaying the effective date for certain filing requirements set forth in April 2020 regulations on military-related exports to China, Russia and Venezuela. After significant pushback from industry representatives that more time was needed to transition to…

On June 26, 2020, the State Department issued a Federal Register notice announcing that it has sanctioned certain Syrian individuals and entities it has determined “are responsible for or complicit in, have directly or indirectly engaged in, attempted to engage in, or financed, the obstruction, disruption, or prevention of a ceasefire in northern Syria”  or…

On June 23, 2020, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released a Federal Register notice seeking public comment on whether extensions for up to 12 months should be granted for particular products that have received exclusions in the China Section 301 process from the 7.5 percent tariffs on imports from China with an…

On June 24, 2020, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) issued a Federal Register notice concerning certain U.S. actions to enforce its rights in the ongoing World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute with the European Union (EU) over large civil aircraft. The notice seeks public comment on whether certain products of current or former…

On June 22, 2020, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released two Federal Register notices seeking public comment on whether extensions for up to 12 months should be granted for particular products that have received exclusions in the China Section 301 process from the 25 percent tariff on imports from China with an…

On June 17, 2020, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer testified before both the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee concerning President Donald Trump’s 2020 Trade Policy Agenda. His written statement highlights the “benefits of the President’s trade and economic policies” for U.S. households, the Trump administration’s fundamental changes to U.S.…

On June 22, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari of an appeal by the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS) regarding the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s authority to impose tariffs on steel imports under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The Court issued no formal statement; in declining to hear…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a Federal Register notice exempting Section 301 import tariffs for one additional List 3 product from China (imports from China with an annual trade value of $200 billion):

  • Motorboats with displacement hulls of reinforced fiberglass and wood, each motorboat measuring not less than 14.47 m

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