Following a busy week in trade, with numerous US court decisions over the past days, businesses may be left wondering as the week wraps up: where does the recent flurry of decisions leave us? Where things stand Refresher on how we got here
In a landmark decision, the United States Court of International Trade (âCITâ) has ruled against the President’s imposition of tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (âIEEPAâ). The decision (involving two consolidated cases, V.O.S. Selections, Inc. et al. v. United States of America et al. and The State of Oregon et al. v. United States Department of Homeland Security et al.), is the first court decision on the Administration’s trade policy and the first…
President Trump issued a memorandum directing the US Trade Representative (âUSTRâ) and Secretary of Commerce to investigate alleged harm from non-reciprocal trade measures by trade partners and to issue recommendations based on their investigation.  The memorandum argues that a range of tariff and non-tariff measures maintained by various countries have contributed to unfair and unbalanced trade and harmed the United States.  Non-tariff measures specifically identified in the memorandum as being unfair and harmful to the United States include: The memorandum directs…
On November 15, 2020, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was signed by China and 14 other nations — the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Brunei*, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia*, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore*, Thailand and Vietnam*) plus Australia*, China, Japan*, New Zealand* and South Korea. Many of the products for which tariffs are eliminated are already duty-free. [Countries with an * are also signatories to the CPTPP] RCEP was originally proposed…