In the past week, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has continued to increase pressure on Iran and North Korea by further identifying certain individuals and entities in the shipping sector as engaging in illicit activities and tightening related economic sanctions.

On August 30, 2019, OFAC designated two individuals, three…

Following up on President Donald Trump’s tweets and an earlier press statement (see Trump and Trade Update of August 26, 2019), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has formally published a Federal Register notice requesting public comment on its intent to increase the Section 301 tariff from 25 percent to 30 percent…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) formally announced today that an additional duty rate of 15 percent – not 10 percent as originally announced – will begin Sept. 1, 2019, on products imported from China and covered under Annex A of the August 20, 2019 Federal Register notice concerning tariffs on imported Chinese…

On August 23, 2019, the ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China escalated quickly when China announced that it would impose tariffs on an additional $75 billion worth of imports from the United States and President Trump tweeted in response that China should not have done so and that the United States would…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is holding a public hearing today regarding its ongoing Section 301 Investigation of France’s Digital Services Tax (DST) (see Trump and Trade Update of July 11, 2019). The French DST law imposes a 3% tax on annual revenues generated by companies that provide certain digital services…

In a Federal Register notice published on August 21, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced that it has added 46 non-U.S. affiliates of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei) to the Entity List because they “pose a significant risk of involvement in activities contrary to the national security or foreign…

The Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (Commerce or ITA) has announced the self-initiation of inquiries into possible circumvention involving exports of certain corrosion-resistant steel products (CORE) made with substrate from China or Taiwan, completed in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Malaysia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and then exported to the United States.…

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released a press statement announcing the list of imports from China that will face a Section 301 10 percent tariff (see also Trump and Trade Update of May 14, 2019). Implementation of the tariff on approximately $300 billion worth of Chinese products will occur in two phases. For most…

President Trump yesterday signed an executive order imposing additional sanctions on the Venezuelan government. The order, “Blocking Property of the Government of Venezuela,” blocks all property and interests in property of the Venezuelan government within the jurisdiction of the United States. It authorizes the secretary of Treasury, in consultation with the secretary of State, to…

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced yesterday that Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin is designating China as a “currency manipulator,” stating that “China has taken concrete steps to devalue its currency, while maintaining substantial foreign exchange reserves despite active use of such tools in the past. The context of these actions and the…