On September 14, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) expanded a ban on certain imports from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (“Xinjiang”) in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) while saying that it was still...more
Beginning May 1, 2020, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) will require a filing fee in connection with any formal notice of a “covered transaction” or a “covered real estate transaction.” The...more
Some U.S. importers may be able to defer payment of certain U.S. import tariffs by 90 days under a temporary final rule (“Tariff Deferral Rule”) published on April 22 by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) and the U.S....more
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) has banned the export from the United States of certain masks, respirators and respirator parts, and medical gloves used as personal protective equipment (“PPE”) through a new...more
On January 17, 2020, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) published two new rules that will greatly expand the scope of minority investments by foreign persons in U.S. businesses that are subject...more
2/7/2020
/ Australia ,
Canada ,
CFIUS ,
Covered Transactions ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Exemptions ,
Final Rules ,
FIRRMA ,
Foreign Investment ,
Mandatory Declarations ,
National Security ,
New Rules ,
Real Estate Investments ,
UK
After months of anticipation, President Donald Trump signed an interim “Phase One” trade agreement (“the Agreement”) with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He at the White House on January 15, 2020. Under the Agreement reached after...more
1/23/2020
/ Agricultural Sector ,
China ,
Currency Manipulation ,
Dispute Resolution ,
Energy Sector ,
Exchange Rates ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Manufacturers ,
Section 301 ,
Tariffs ,
Trade Agreements ,
Trade Negotiations ,
Trump Administration ,
USTR ,
WTO
December 2019 has yielded some potentially significant relief to U.S. businesses and agricultural producers that may improve the terms of trade in 2020 after a prolonged period of increasing and damaging friction in...more
12/27/2019
/ Agricultural Sector ,
Canada ,
CFIUS ,
China ,
Export Controls ,
FCC ,
Imports ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Mexico ,
NAFTA ,
Tariffs ,
Trade Relations ,
Trade Wars ,
Trans-Pacific Partnership ,
Trump Administration ,
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) ,
US Trade Policies ,
USTR
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Investment Security published proposed regulations on September 24 (“Proposed Regulations”). Under the Proposed Regulations, more foreign investment transactions will be subject...more
10/31/2019
/ CFIUS ,
Covered Transactions ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Exemptions ,
Export Controls ,
FIRRMA ,
Foreign Investment ,
National Security ,
Personal Data ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Real Estate Transactions ,
Tribal Corporations ,
U.S. Treasury
On August 13, 2019, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced a phased imposition of a new Section 301 10% tariff on roughly $300 billion in annual imports from China that were not covered in three previous...more
The Administration has been fully occupied this summer in its ongoing disputes with America’s major trading partners. The U.S. Government is at least nominally resuming high level trade negotiations with China after months...more
7/26/2019
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Canada ,
China ,
EU ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Bans ,
Export Controls ,
France ,
Imports ,
Indictments ,
Mexico ,
NAFTA ,
Section 301 ,
Tariffs ,
Trade Relations ,
Trump Administration ,
UK Brexit ,
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) ,
US Trade Policies ,
USTR ,
WTO
In an Executive Order (EO) issued on Wednesday, President Trump gave exceedingly broad authority to the U.S. Department of Commerce to block transactions of information and communications products and services if the...more
5/17/2019
/ 5G Network ,
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
China ,
Digital Communications ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Information Technology ,
National Security ,
Retaliatory Tariffs ,
Tariffs ,
Telecommunications ,
Trump Administration ,
U.S. Commerce Department
On May 13, 2019, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) publicly released a notice of the Trump Administration’s intention to subject another US$300 billion in annual U.S. imports of Chinese-origin...more
5/16/2019
/ China ,
Exclusions ,
Exports ,
Imports ,
Notice and Comment ,
Retaliatory Tariffs ,
Section 301 ,
Tariffs ,
Trade Relations ,
Trump Administration ,
US Trade Policies ,
USTR
On Friday, May 10, 2019, the Trump Administration increased the tariff rate on US$200 billion worth of annual U.S. imports of Chinese-origin products from the current rate of 10% to 25%. That sharp hike in U.S. tariffs...more
On April 17, 2019, the Trump Administration announced that it would now allow plaintiffs to file U.S. federal court cases against individuals and companies that use private property expropriated by the Cuban government after...more
4/23/2019
/ Blocking Statutes ,
Canada ,
Cuba ,
Damages ,
Economic Sanctions ,
EU ,
Expropriation ,
Fair Market Value ,
Foreign Entities ,
Mexico ,
Multinationals ,
Nicaragua ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Personal Property ,
Secretary of State ,
Trafficking ,
Trump Administration ,
Venezuela
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) proposed on April 8 to impose additional tariffs on $11 billion of imported products, at 100% of the value of the goods, if they are made in any of the 28 member states of...more
As part of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill) signed into law by President Trump today, Congress authorized the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to use federal funds to assist in the marketing of...more
According to the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed over the weekend that neither the United States nor China would increase tariffs over the next 90 days, pending further...more
On November 5, 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) will reimpose certain economic sanctions against Iran that had been held in abeyance under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action...more
A little more than two months after the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (“FIRRMA”) was signed into law, the United States Department of the Treasury (has invoked its new authority under the FIRRMA to...more
10/24/2018
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
CFIUS ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Federal Pilot Programs ,
Filing Requirements ,
FIRRMA ,
Foreign Acquisitions ,
Foreign Investment ,
National Security ,
Reporting Requirements ,
U.S. Treasury
Since July 2018, the Trump Administration has imposed two sets of tariffs on goods made in China under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (“Section 301”) (19 U.S.C. § 2411) that cover an estimated $50 billion in imports...more
After months of deliberation, Congress has passed the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (“FIRRMA”) as Title XVII in the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (“2019...more
8/15/2018
/ CFIUS ,
China ,
Covered Transactions ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Emerging Technology Companies ,
Export Controls ,
FIRRMA ,
Foreign Investment ,
National Security ,
NDAA ,
Trump Administration ,
U.S. Commerce Department ,
U.S. Treasury
Under the International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act ("IITSSA"), 22 U.S.C. Section 3101, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (“BEA”) within the U.S. Department of Commerce mandates that, every five years, certain...more
Citing both “serious risk to United States nationals of arrest and long-term detention” and the “imminent danger to the physical safety of United States nationals,” on August 2, the U.S. State Department issued a Geographical...more
On July 25, 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a Russia sanctions bill, “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” (“H.R. 3364”) by an overwhelming vote of 419 to three. This broad-ranging sanctions...more
On March 1, 2017, President Donald Trump released his first major policy statement on U.S. foreign trade relations. Issued through the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”), a part of the Executive Office of the...more