Three weeks after the partial federal government shutdown began and shuttered most of the trade-related government agencies in Washington, D.C. (see Trump and Trade Update dated December 26, 2018), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) – which had remained fully operational – has indicated that it will begin to furlough staff on…

International trade and international trade disputes were a predominant focus of President Trump and his trade officials throughout 2018. Thompson Hine’s Trump and Trade team has prepared a slide presentation to provide our readers with a broad overview of the most significant trade actions taken by the Trump administration last year. From the renegotiation of…

On December 21, 2018, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced its first round of product exclusions for U.S. imports from China receiving a 25 percent tariff increase on July 6, 2018, as part of the Section 301 process. In a December 28, 2018 Federal Register notice, the USTR announced that it…

On December 21, 2018, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) submitted to Congress and released to the public a summary of the Trump administration’s specific negotiating objectives for its U.S.-Japan Free Trade Agreement negotiations. This follows the USTR’s notification to Congress on October 16, 2018, of the Trump administration’s intention to enter into negotiations (see Trump…

With the partial federal government shutdown beginning at 12:01 a.m. on December 22, 2018, most of the U.S. government’s trade-oriented agencies have either shut down or had their operations severely restricted. What follows is a listing of the current operational status of many of these agencies:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)

In a conference…

With growing congressional and business concerns over the backlog of Section 232 product exclusion requests and the lack of transparency in the review and decision-making processes of the Department of Commerce (Commerce), U.S. Senators Pat Toomey, Doug Jones and Thomas Carper submitted a letter November 26, 2018, to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting a…

Following a dinner meeting between the two leaders at the G-20 summit in early December, President Donald Trump announced that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to begin and complete negotiations on certain trade issues between the countries within 90 days. As part of that process, Trump agreed to postpone for 90 days in…

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has extended the public comment period for its November 19, 2018 advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) for “Review of Controls of Certain Emerging Technologies.” In a December 10, 2018 announcement, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Export Administration Matthew Borman extended the deadline from…

The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) determined December 7, 2018, by a 5-0 unanimous vote of its commissioners that U.S. industry is materially injured by reason of imports of common alloy aluminum sheet from China. This finding follows the determination of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) in early November that such…

On December 1, 2018, President Donald Trump announced his intention to formally terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 2019. Addressing the press aboard Air Force One, Trump stated that he will terminate the agreement within six months in an effort to get the U.S. Congress to move on implementing the United States-Mexico-Canada…