On February 17, 2023, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a statement indicating that it will expedite the processing of export license applications for items needed to assist in ongoing relief efforts in Turkey and Syria in response to the massive earthquake on February 6, 2023.
Turkey and Syria are
Pursuant to the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA), the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) established the concept of “excepted foreign state[s],” defined as those states with compliance laws, orders and regulations similar to those of the United States concerning foreign investments assessed for national security purposes. See
On February 10, 2023, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued Syria General License (GL) 23 that authorizes until August 8, 2023 all transactions related to earthquake relief efforts in Syria that would otherwise be prohibited by the Syrian Sanctions Regulations under 31 C.F.R. Part 542. The GL makes clear
On February 7, 2023, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) heard oral arguments on the USTR’s remand explanation and the plaintiff group’s reply comments. The hearing addressed the CIT’s earlier finding that the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) failed to respond adequately to comments it received during the rulemaking process when
On February 3, 2023, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) issued multiple determinations related to the price cap to be set on Russian-origin petroleum products. Treasury also published finalized guidance on the broader price cap policy implemented by the “Price Cap Coalition” – an international coalition that includes the United States, the G7, the European Union
In February 2021 and pursuant to Executive Order 14017, “America’s Supply Chains,” President Joe Biden directed a review across all federal agencies to address vulnerabilities in the supply chains for critical goods. See Update of February 25, 2021. Subsequent federal agency reviews and a White House report found five key U.S. supply chain vulnerabilities
On February 3, 2023, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it is extending for 75 days China Section 301 tariff exclusions for 81 medical products. The medical products were previously deemed as needed for the COVID-19 pandemic and granted exclusions from additional tariffs. The current exclusions were scheduled to expire on
On February 3, 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) issued a determination in the Federal Register providing notice that it has determined that palm oil and various derivatives thereof “are no longer being mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part with the use of convict, forced, or indentured labor by the Sime Darby
On January 27, 2023, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai hosted the initial ministerial for the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP), a regional framework for cooperation to promote inclusive economic growth and strengthen competitiveness. The APEP consists of the United States, Barbados, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the
On January 18, 2023, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued an Interim Final Rule extending export controls currently in place for China on advanced computing integrated circuits (ICs), computer commodities that contain such ICs, and certain semiconductor manufacturing items to the Macau Special Administrative Region of China (“Macau”). While China