2020

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…

After receiving over 4,000 Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) petitions seeking to temporarily reduce or eliminate tariffs on the import of various goods into the United States (see Trump and Trade Update of October 1, 2019), the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) has been posting petitions satisfying the statutory filing criteria on a rolling basis…

On December 13, 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released a revised policy for companies regarding voluntary self-disclosures of export control and sanctions violations. The revised policy was effective on the date of its release and will be formally incorporated into the Justice Manual. In releasing the revised Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy (VSD Policy),…

On December 30, 2019, the U.S. Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) issued an interim final rule seeking to amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) with definitions more clearly explaining activities that are not considered to be exports, reexports, retransfers or temporary imports of secured and unclassified technical data. This …

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced on December 31, 2019 additional Section 301 tariff exclusions for certain imported Chinese products appearing on List 3. These products have been subject to Section 301 tariffs since September 24, 2018, when President Donald Trump announced additional import duties on Chinese goods with an annual trade…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a Federal Register notice seeking public comment on the extension of certain product exclusions it granted in March 2019 in the ongoing trade dispute with China. These exclusions were part of the first round of Section 301 tariffs placed on imports of Chinese goods with…