2020

On June 2, 2020, Secretary Wilbur Ross announced that the Department of Commerce will initiate an investigation into whether the quantities or circumstances of imports of vanadium into the United States threaten to impair U.S. national security. This investigation is the result of a petition filed by U.S. producers AMG Vanadium LLC (Cambridge, Ohio) and…

On May 29, 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 25 percent tariff on imports from China with an…

On May 29, 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 receiving exclusions in the China Section 301 process from the 25 percent tariff on imports from China with an annual trade…

On May 26, 2020, as required under the FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act, the White House released its report, “United States Strategic Approach to the People’s Republic of China,” detailing a government-wide strategy concerning the People’s Republic of China (China or PRC). Recognizing that 40 years of direct engagement with China has not…

Hong Kong currently enjoys special trade status with the United States in comparison to China, as a result of China’s agreement in 1997 to allow Hong Kong continued autonomy in many economic and administrative ways. As recent press articles have indicated, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has increasingly cracked down on the Hong Kong…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), after seeking comments on whether to extend for up to 12 months exclusions from the Section 301 tariffs granted in June 2019 for certain imports from China (see Trump and Trade Update of March 22, 2020), has approved 16 extensions covering the following Harmonized Tariff Schedule…

The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment charging 28 North Korean and 5 Chinese individuals (“Defendants”) with facilitating more than $2.5 billion in illegal payments for Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile program through North Korea’s state-owned Foreign Trade Bank (“FTB”). DOJ alleges that the scheme involved “covert branches” of FTB in China, Russia, Libya,…

On May 27, 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States was ending the sanctions waiver pertaining to the remaining nuclear projects in Iran covered by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – the Arak reactor modernization conversion, the provision of enriched uranium for the Tehran Research Reactor, and the export…

In a May 28, 2020 Federal Register notice, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), without explanation or precedent, revoked two granted Section 301 product exclusions.  In early May 2020, the USTR approved a batch of product exclusions for certain List/Tranche 4 products (imports from China with an annual trade value of $300…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has released its summary of specific negotiating objectives for the initiation of U.S.-Kenya trade negotiations. As part of the process of formulating these objectives, the USTR on March 23, 2020, solicited public comments (see Trump and Trade Update of April 13, 2020) and received over…