On August 6, 2020, President Trump issued a Proclamation on Adjusting Imports of Aluminum Into the United States, which amended Proclamation 9704 of March 8, 2018 to impose a 10% additional ad valorem duty on imports from Canada of non-alloyed unwrought aluminum provided for in subheading 7601.10, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS or HTSUS). The additional duty was imposed under sec. 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and will take…
On August 7, 2020, CBP issued CSMS #43600625 – GUIDANCE: Section 301 Tranche 2 – $16B Action Extension of First Round of Product Exclusions from China, which is reproduced below: Background On July 30, 2020, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published Federal Register (FR) Notice 85 FR 45949 to extend through December 31, 2020 certain product exclusions previously covered by the July 31, 2019 notice (see 84 FR 37381) for Section 301 duties on China (Tranche 2…
On August 6, 2020, the Office of the US Trade Representative posted on its website a notice to be published in the Federal Register that announces the USTR’s determination to extend certain exclusions through December 31, 2020, as specified in the Annex to the notice. The USTR initiated the exclusion process on June 24, 2019, and has granted 15 sets of exclusions under the $200 billion action. These exclusions will expire on August 7, 2020.…
On August 6, 2020, the Office of the US Trade Representative posted on its website a notice of product exclusions to be published in the Federal Register that announces the USTR’s determination to grant certain exclusion requests, as specified in the Annex to the notice, and make certain amendments to previously announced exclusions. The product exclusions announced in the notice apply as of September 1, 2019, the effective date of List 1 of the $300…
On July 31, 2020, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued CSMS #43534641 – GUIDANCE: Eighth Round of Product Exclusions from China Section 301 Tranche 4A – $300B and Section 301 Technical Corrections, reproduced below: Background On July 23, 2020, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published Federal Register (FR) Notice 85 FR 44563 on certain exclusions from the Section 301 duty related to goods from China ($300B Action – Tranche 4). These product exclusions relate…
On July 30, 2020, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice that announces USTR’s determination to extend certain exclusions through December 31, 2020. The first set of exclusions for List (Tranche) 2 was published in July 2019 and will expire in July 2020. On April 30, 2020, USTR established a process for the public to comment on whether to extend particular exclusions granted in July 2019…
On 15 July 2020, the U.S. and Gulf Cooperation Council (“GCC”)-led Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (“TFTC”) designated six targets affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (“ISIS”), including an entity allegedly posing as a charity (and its director) based in Afghanistan that allegedly provided support to ISIS’ branch in that country, ISIS-Khorasan (“ISIS-K”). The entities that were designated are: Al Haram ExchangeTawasul CompanyAl-Khalidi ExchangeNejaat Social Welfare Organization Five of these targets (which includes…
On July 28, 2020, the Department of the Treasury issued a final rule formally implementing filing fees for formal notices of transactions submitted to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”). CFIUS filing fees were previously established in an interim rule on April 29, 2020, and are assessed on a sliding scale between $0 and $300,000, depending on the value of the transaction. In addition, the final rule also narrows the definition of “principal place of…
On July 28, 2020, Draft Bill No. 996800 was introduced in the State Duma of Russia proposing additional Russian countersanctions (“Draft“). The Draft proposes to introduce amendments to the Federal law No. 281-FZ dated December 30, 2006 “On special economic measures and coercive actions” that sets forth the legal framework for the Russian countersanctions regime. The Draft proposes the following principal provisions: Application of the restrictive measures to the entities controlled by the sanctioned persons. These controlled…
On 28 July 2020, the EU agreed to impose EU-wide measures to restrict the export of certain items to Hong Kong. The EU Council’s press release can be found here. These restricted goods include equipment or technology that could be used for internal repression, interception of internal communications or cyber surveillance. Like recent US and UK measures, the new EU export controls have been proposed in response to the recent HK National Security Law. Germany has…