The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated 14 individuals and entities for sanctions arising from serious human rights abuses and censorship in Iran and support of designated Iranian weapons proliferators. According to Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin, “The United States will not stand by while the Iranian regime continues…

President Trump has announced that he will continue to waive nuclear-related sanctions toward Iran despite his misgivings about the multi-party agreement with Iran known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, or commonly known as the Iran nuclear agreement) and Iran’s continued support for international terrorism, its human rights abuses and its continuing censorship…

On January 5, the United States and South Korea held their first meeting to discuss potential renegotiation of the U.S.- South Korea (KORUS) free trade agreement. In addition to discussing procedural and timetable issues, the United States discussed proposals to move toward fair and reciprocal trade in key industrial goods sectors, such as autos and…

President Trump has released his first National Security Strategy (NSS), a statutorily mandated document that sets forth how the president intends to put his national security vision into practice on behalf of the United States. The strategy identifies four vital national interests, or “four pillars”: (1) Protect the American people, the homeland, and the American…

At the introductory session for the 11th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ambassador Robert Lighthizer acknowledged that the WTO is an important institution but then proceeded in his opening statement to criticize the organization and its focus. He stated that the WTO is “losing its essential focus on negotiation and becoming a…

The Trade Policy Review Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has released its annual report, Overview of Developments in the International Trading Environment, that covers the implementation of trade-related measures across the WTO membership in the last 12 months (from mid-October 2016 to mid-October 2017). WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo stated that “the Report…

Upon the conclusion of the fifth round of renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer issued the following statement:

“While we have made progress on some of our efforts to modernize NAFTA, I remain concerned about the lack of headway. Thus far, we have seen no evidence that…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has released an updated summary of U.S. objectives for the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The new objectives update the previous objectives published in July (see our July 18, 2017 update), and come after four rounds of negotiations among the United States,…

As previously detailed in our September 26 Trump and Trade Update, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) unanimously determined that crystalline silicon photovoltaic (CSPV) cells (or solar cells) were being imported into the United States in such quantities that they were causing substantial injury to the U.S. solar equipment industry. On October 31, 2017,…

In support of its preliminary determination in the antidumping duty investigation of imports of aluminum foil from the People’s Republic of China, the Department of Commerce has released a 205-page memorandum finding that China continues to be considered a nonmarket economy (NME) country in trade remedy cases because it “does not operate sufficiently on market…