The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in consultation with the Department of State, has sanctioned numerous Russian oligarchs and the companies they own or control, 17 senior Russian government officials, and a state-owned Russian weapons trading company. In his announcement, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stated, “The Russian government engages…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has released its annual report on significant foreign trade barriers, providing an inventory of the most important foreign barriers affecting U.S. exports of goods and services, foreign direct investment by U.S. persons and protection of intellectual property rights. The term “trade barriers” does not have a fixed definition but is broadly defined by the USTR as government laws, regulations, policies or practices that either protect domestic goods and services from foreign competition, artificially stimulate exports of particular domestic goods and services, or fail to provide adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights. The report classifies foreign trade barriers into 10 different categories, including import policies, government procurement, export subsidies, lack of intellectual property protections and service/investment barriers.

Announcing that China’s unfair trade practices in the areas of technology transfers and intellectual property result in harm to the U.S. economy of at least $50 billion per year, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum announcing the findings of his administration’s Section 301 investigation into these practices by the People’s Republic of China. This trade…

As expected, President Trump has formally requested from Congress a three-year extension of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) pursuant to the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015. In requesting the extension of TPA, which is due to expire July 1, 2018, the president noted, “Extension of trade authorities procedures is essential to fulfill…

The Department of Commerce has released information setting forth the process for how parties in the United States may submit requests for product-based exclusions from tariffs implemented by President Trump under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to protect national security from threats resulting from imports of aluminum and steel, as previously…

The European Union (EU) has published a list of U.S. products it might target in retaliation if President Trump moves forward with tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from the Section 232 investigations. The list is divided into two categories:

  • Part A is a list of U.S. products that face immediate retaliation if the

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The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned five entities and 19 individuals it has identified as engaging in Russian cyber activity, including “attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure,” according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The Treasury Department indicated that these sanctions were…

President Trump has signed two proclamations imposing 25 percent tariffs on imports of steel mill products and 10 percent tariffs on wrought and unwrought aluminum pursuant to his announcement on March 1, 2018. The president stated that these actions were necessary to address global overcapacity and unfair trade practices in the steel and aluminum…

In the category of “we can’t make this stuff up,” there reportedly has been in the past 24 hours an all-out war within the Trump administration over any tariffs to be implemented as a result of the Section 232 investigations into steel and aluminum imports. On February 16, the Department of Commerce publicly released reports…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has released the Trump administration’s Trade Policy Agenda and Annual Report detailing how the administration “is promoting free, fair, and reciprocal trade and strongly enforcing U.S. trade laws.” USTR Robert Lighthizer, in releasing the report, stated that, “President Trump has launched a new era in American trade policy.…