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On July 15, 2019, President Donald Trump signed an executive order, Maximizing Use of American-Made Goods, Products, and Materials, to further promote the principles underlying the Buy American Act of 1933. In remarks to the press, the president stated that “Early in my presidency, I ordered the federal government to live by two very…

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has published an Interim Final Rule in the Federal Register announcing that it has developed a specific portal (i.e., the ‘‘232 Exclusions Portal’’) for persons submitting exclusion requests, objections to exclusion requests, rebuttals and surrebuttals to replace the use of the federal rulemaking portal (…

On May 17, 2019, the United States, Canada and Mexico concluded an agreement in which the United States agreed to remove the Section 232 tariffs for steel and aluminum imports from those countries and Canada and Mexico agreed to remove all retaliatory tariffs imposed on U.S. goods. Accordingly, President Donald Trump issued proclamations declaring that…

President Donald Trump has announced further action against Iran by imposing sanctions on its iron, steel, aluminum and copper sectors, the country’s largest non-petroleum-related sources of export revenue. In an executive order, the president implemented blocking sanctions on any person determined by the secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the secretary of State,…

A World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel ruling, Russia – Measures Concerning Traffic in Transit, issued last week on a member’s use of the WTO’s so-called “national security exception” under Article XXI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) may have a significant impact on the Trump administration’s application of…

On March 6, 2019, during a meeting of the Foreign Trade Commission of the Mexican Senate, Luz Maria de la Mora-Sanchez, Foreign Trade Undersecretary of Mexico’s Ministry of Economy, announced that the Mexican government is planning to include additional items on its list of U.S. products subject to retaliatory measures, which were originally imposed on…

On February 27, 2019, Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), testified before the House Ways & Means Committee on U.S.-China trade relations. In his brief opening statement, the ambassador stated that the United States “can compete with anyone in the world but we must have rules – enforced rules – that make sure…

On February 15, 2019, President Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019 (Act) that fully funds the government for the remainder of the fiscal year ending on September 30, 2019. With Congress and the president agreeing on these appropriations, a second partial government shutdown was averted. Included in the Act is a provision authorizing additional…

The Congressional Research Service (CRS), a nonpartisan staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress, has released an overview report, International Trade and Finance: Overview and Issues for the 116th Congress, in which it offers a brief review of President Donald Trump’s first two years in office and policy issues that the new 116th…

As reported in our post of January 25, 2019, members of the 116th session of Congress are seeking ways to address President Donald Trump’s authority to unilaterally impose tariffs under various statutes. This trend continued on January 30, 2019, with the bipartisan introduction of the Bicameral Congressional Trade Authority Act. Introduced by Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Pat Toomey (R-PA), this bill would restore to Congress its Article I constitutional authority over foreign trade and commerce, specifically focusing on tariffs implemented under the claim of “national security.” The senators stated that recent Trump administration Section 232 actions have been economically disruptive and have damaged U.S. relationships with its allies, including Mexico, Canada, Japan, the EU and India.