2020

On July 14, 2020, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) ruled in Slip Opinion 20-98 that a proclamation President Donald Trump issued increasing Section 232 duties on steel imports from Turkey beyond those previously implemented under a prior proclamation violates statutorily-mandated procedures and the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under…

On July 10, 2020, The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced the imposition of a 25 percent import duty on French products in response to France’s Digital Services Tax (DST).  This action is the result of a Section 301 investigation initiated on July 10, 2019, after the French government passed a tax on…

On July 8, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) published guidance relating to the U.S. Department of State’s final rule amending the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (“ITAR”) and related BIS final rule, to transfer export controls of certain firearms, armament and ammunition from the U.S. Munitions List…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has published a Federal Register notice granting a limited number of product exclusion extensions from the Section 301 tariff for four imported Chinese products appearing on the first list/tranche of goods valued at $34 billion. In July 2019, the USTR granted 110 specially-prepared exclusion requests with an…

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a Federal Register notice exempting Section 301 tariffs for certain List 4A products (imports from China with an annual trade value of $300 billion). The exemptions cover 61 specially prepared product descriptions, covering a total of 86 separate exclusion requests. These exclusions will apply from September 1, 2019,…

The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) has announced the initiation of an investigation into the economic impact on the United States of all trade agreements. The investigation, Economic Impact of Trade Agreements Implemented Under Trade Authorities Procedures, 2021 Report, is required by section 105(f)(2) of the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of…

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an inter-agency committee headed by the Department of the Treasury, has released its annual report for 2018. CFIUS is authorized to review transactions that could result in the control of U.S. businesses by foreign persons or companies, as well as non-controlling investments by foreign…

In collaboration with our foreign law firm partners, we continue to update our chart of COVID-19 measures taken by governments around the world. The government measures in the chart include economic, labor and employment, health and safety, and export and import measures. Below is a list of the updated countries and a summary of the…

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…