On January 5, 2021, President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring that beginning on February 19, 2021, “any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with persons that develop or control the following Chinese connected software applications, or with their subsidiaries, … :…

On December 31, 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) published a temporary final rule (“Rule”) that extends and modifies the most recent rule issued on August 10, 2020 to continue to restrict the exports of the four categories of personal protective equipment (PPE) and respirators as well as a…

Key Notes:

  • Many products and software that use encryption are eligible for export without a license under U.S. export controls if certain requirements are followed.
  • Mass market and other items described under License Exception ENC may be exported without a license if the exporter either: (1) confirms the product’s classification through BIS’s Commodity Classification Automated

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The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it will add on January 12, 2021 “certain products of certain EU member States” to the list of products subject to additional duties in the ongoing World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute with the European Union (EU) over subsidies for large civil aircraft.  In October 2019,…

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a final rule on December 28, 2020, in which it amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to revise the Country Group designations for Ukraine, Mexico and Cyprus.  The EAR designates countries in Country Groups (A, B, D and E) which reflect each country’s export…

On December 22, 2020, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) released a report providing information on the U.S. industries producing COVID-19 related goods and the market, trade and supply chain challenges and constraints affecting the availability of such goods. The report follows an earlier report that identified such goods treating and responding to the COVID-19…

On December 23, 2020, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a final rule in the Federal Register that removes Hong Kong as a “separate destination” under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). This rule follows U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s May 2020 announcement that Hong Kong no longer warrants treatment…

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it has issued General License (GL) 5F (Authorizing Certain Transactions Related to the Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. 2020 8.5 Percent Bond on or After July 21, 2021), which continues to delay U.S. persons’ ability to enforce bondholder rights to the CITGO…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has announced that it is extending until March 31, 2021, Section 301 tariff exclusions for imports of certain Chinese medical care products needed to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective January 1, 2021, Section 301 tariff exclusions have been extended for a variety of Chinese medical care products,…