Following Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the United States and other major global economies have taken a range of actions to impose economic costs on Russia and Russian interests.  These actions initially consisted of economic sanctions targeting Russian companies and individuals, but have been expanded to include trade in goods.

On March 11, 2022, the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States), as well as the European Union, issued a statement announcing their intention to impose additional economic costs on Russia in response to its military invasion of Ukraine, including with respect to trade in goods.  The joint statement included a range of commitments aimed at isolating Russia from the world’s major economies and global financial institutions, including revoking Russia’s “Most Favored Nation” (MFN) status, which affords Russian imports access to favorable tariff rates among World Trade Organization (WTO) members, and imposing additional restrictions on exports and imports of “key goods and technologies” to Russia.

As discussed below, the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom have each taken steps to effectuate the G7 statement.  In addition to revoking Russia’s MFN status, thereby increasing the cost of Russian imports generally, these jurisdictions have all imposed certain product-specific restrictions on the importation and/or exportation of specific goods from and/or to Russia.  In certain instances, these measures have also been extended to cover trade with Russia’s ally Belarus.

 
Continue Reading Major Global Economies Take Aim at Trade with Russia Following Military Invasion of Ukraine

In October 2021, President Biden announced the United States’ intention to pursue an “Indo-Pacific Economic Framework” (IPEF) as a means of strengthening U.S. ties in the Asian region.  Substantive discussions on the IPEF have not yet begun, and indeed, there has not yet been an announcement how the negotiations will be conducted or which nations will be involved.  Nevertheless, enough about this proposed framework of agreements has been announced that companies in the region can begin to prepare for the process.  This article will discuss what is known about the IPEF, why the current administration is taking this approach, and how countries in the Asian region may be affected by this new agreement.

By way of background, in February 2016, after years of negotiations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was signed.  The TPP covered 12 countries, including the United States, and was described as a high-standard “21st Century” trade agreement.  However, one of then-President Trump’s first actions in office was to withdraw the United States from the TPP.  The remaining TPP countries renegotiated the agreement without the United States (essentially removing certain elements of the agreement the United States alone had backed), and ultimately entered into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).  Since President Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, pressure has been building for the United States to reengage with Asia on economic and commercial matters.  The IPEF is the United States’ current policy response.Continue Reading The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework: How the United States Intends to Re-Engage with Asia on Trade

On February 10, 2022, the Department of Commerce (“the Department”) published a Federal Register notice requesting public comments on the process for seeking exclusions from the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs.  Comments are due on March 28, 2022.

The Department is soliciting comments with regard to two areas in particular.  First, as directed by

On February 8, 2022, Auxin Solar Inc. (“Auxin”) filed a request that the U.S. Department of Commerce (“the Department”) determine whether the antidumping duty and countervailing duty (“AD/CVD”) orders on crystalline silicon photovoltaic (“CSPV”) cells and modules, i.e., solar cells and panels, from China are being circumvented.  Auxin alleges that certain Chinese CSPV producers

2022 is shaping up to be a critical year for the Biden Administration regarding U.S. international trade policy.  In 2021, the Biden Administration made headway in resolving some of the challenges with United States’ allies that arose during the last Administration, and trying to build bridges in important regions that had perhaps had been neglected.  But in a number of other critical areas, and arguably in the most significant areas, the Biden Administration made little tangible progress over the past year.  The discussion below offers a look back at the key developments in 2021 with respect to U.S. trade relations with the EU, China, the rest of Asia and North America, and a look ahead at what could come in 2022.
Continue Reading The US International Trade Agenda: A Look Back, A Look Ahead

This is the fourth post in a series regarding the Department of Commerce’s revisions to antidumping/countervailing duty regulations.  Prior blog posts in this series can be found here, here, and here.

On September 20, 2021, the U.S. Department of Commerce (“DOC”) published a Final Rule, promulgating new regulations which govern inquiries regarding the circumvention of antidumping and countervailing duty (“AD/CVD”) orders.  These new regulations govern any circumvention inquiries for which a circumvention request is filed, as well as any circumvention inquiry self-initiated by DOC, on or after November 4, 2021.  In addition to clarifying the procedures for anticircumvention inquiries, the Final Rule also significantly expands the potential impact of these proceedings, including by expanding the potential imposition of AD/CVD cash deposits, which may now even reach entries prior to the initiation of the anticircumvention inquiry.Continue Reading Revisions to AD/CVD Regulations: Circumvention Inquiries

On October 30, 2021, the United States and the European Union (“EU”) reached an agreement to replace the tariffs imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962  (“Section 232”) on EU imports of steel and aluminum with a tariff-rate quota (“TRQ”) that is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2022.  The deal allows a certain volume of EU steel and aluminum to enter the United States each year without the application of Section 232 tariffs.  Imports over that volume will be subject to Section 232 tariffs, which are currently 25 percent for steel imports, and 10 percent for aluminum imports.

According to details released by the Department of Commerce (“Commerce”), the TRQ is based on historical import values and will be allocated by product and by EU Member State.  For steel, the TRQ will be broken down into 54 product categories, with the total annual amount set at 3.3 million metric tons per year, starting in 2022.  The annual amount for the aluminum TRQ will be 18,000 metric tons for unwrought aluminum and 366,000 metric tons for semi-finished (wrought) aluminum.  The quota levels for unwrought aluminum will be subdivided into two product categories, and the quota levels for semi-finished aluminum will be subdivided into fourteen product categories. The United States will conduct annual reviews to adjust the steel TRQ amount based on US demand using data from the World Steel Association, but at this point there is no similar provision to adjust the levels of the aluminum TRQ.Continue Reading Client Alert: US and EU Reach Agreement Regarding Section 232 Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Imports

The Final Rule published by the U.S. Department of Commerce (“DOC”) on September 20, 2021, makes substantial modifications to the DOC’s regulations on scope proceedings to be conducted under antidumping and countervailing duty (“AD/CVD”) orders.  These new rules amend the scope inquiry process in a number of places, including, among others: giving the DOC discretion to self-initiate a scope inquiry; requiring more detailed information for a scope inquiry application; eliminating the informal scope inquiry procedure; establishing new time limits for the scope inquiry; and giving interested parties additional time to submit comments.  Perhaps most importantly, these new regulations accelerate the timeline for imposing provisional relief against imports believed to fall within the scope of an AD/CVD order, and permit the imposition of an AD/CVD cash deposit requirement on entries made prior to the initiation of a scope inquiry.
Continue Reading Revisions to the Department of Commerce’s Antidumping / Countervailing Duty Regulation: Scope Proceedings

At the request of the US Senate Finance Committee, the US International Trade Commission (“ITC”) is investigating the trade and economic effects of foreign censorship practices on US businesses under Section 332 of the Trade Act of 1930 (“Section 332”).

A Section 332 investigation is only a fact-finding investigation, and does not itself lead to the imposition of tariffs or other trade restrictive measures.  However, if the ITC concludes at the end of an investigation that certain policies have burdened or restricted US commerce, the ITC’s conclusions could be used as the basis for further trade action, such as under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which could result in the imposition of restrictions on trade.Continue Reading The Trade and Economic Effects of Foreign Censorship Studied by the US International Trade Commission