July 2020

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has published the final rule in the Federal Register amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to suspend all License Exceptions for Hong Kong that provide preferential treatment as compared to those available for exports to China.  This amendment to the EAR implements the announcement…

On July 29, 2020, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Department of State sanctioned four Syrian individuals and ten entities. The OFAC designations focus on a key supporter of Syrian President Basher al-Assad for “enriching the Syrian regime through construction of luxury real estate” and for actively…

On July 29, 2020, Novus International, Inc. (Novus) filed petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (Commission) seeking antidumping duties (ADD) on imports of methionine from France, Japan and Spain.  The petition alleges that imports of methionine “more than doubled from 2017 to 2019, increasing by 110.2 percent.  …

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in a Federal Register notice granted a limited number of extensions for imported Chinese products appearing on List 2 (goods valued $16 million) previously excluded from the Section 301 tariff.  These extensions include certain medical supplies and products necessary to continue to combat the COVID-19 virus.  In…

Effective July 22, 2020, pursuant to a Federal Register notice, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has placed 11 Chinese entities on the Entity List stating that all “have been implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor…

On July 20, 2020, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) issued a Federal Register notice exempting Section 301 tariffs for imports from China appearing on List4A (products from China with an annual trade value of $300 billion). The exemptions cover 11 ten-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) subheadings and 53 specially prepared product descriptions,…

On July 17, 2020, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a Notice of Inquiry seeking public comment on the list of items on the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) Commerce Control List (CCL) that are controlled for crime control and detection (CC) reasons.  Comments must be received no later than September…

On July 17, 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 tariff on imports from China with an…

On July 14, 2020, President Donald Trump signed into law the “Hong Kong Autonomy Act” (H.R. 7440), which authorizes and imposes sanctions on foreign persons, entities and financial institutions contributing to China’s actions to remove autonomy from Hong Kong. Unanimously passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate in early July, this new…