November 2017

The U.S. Department of Commerce self-initiated trade cases for the first time since 1991 on Tuesday, November 28, on Chinese common alloy aluminum sheet. While Commerce normally opens antidumping and countervailing duty investigations only after requests from the domestic industry, the agency is authorized to self-initiate cases. Commerce last exercised this power for a countervailing duty case in 1991 and for an antidumping case in 1985.

Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement on Tuesday, “President Trump made it clear from day one that unfair trade practices will not be tolerated under this administration, and today, we take one more step in fulfilling that promise. We are self-initiating the first trade case in over a quarter century, showing once again that we stand in constant vigilance in support of free, fair and reciprocal trade.”

Non-vessel operating common carriers (NVOCCs) are often vulnerable to importer/exporter debtors when they declare bankruptcy. As brick and mortar retailers continue to face dwindling market share due to the dramatic rise in online shopping – $1.25 billion per day in online consumer purchases in the U.S., and doubling every five years – risks to NVOCCs rise. Retail Dive’s running list of 2017 retail apocalypse victims is a comprehensive tally of retailers who have succumbed to financial pressures already this year. They also recently listed twelve additional prominent retailers possibly on the brink of bankruptcy.

On November 8, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) issued a Notice for Proposed Rulemaking regarding modifications to NVOCC Service Arrangements (NSAs) and Negotiated Rate Arrangements (NRAs).

NSAs:

NSAs will continue to serve as basic agreements between NVOCCS and their customers for comprehensive longer-termed ocean transport agreements with provisions similar to those included in ocean carrier service contracts, with two basic differences:

The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has amended its Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations (GTSR) in order to impose additional sanctions on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) within the timeline required by the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). Effective October 31, 2017, persons and entities that OFAC has designated as officials, agents, or affiliates of the IRGC remain subject to secondary blocking sanctions which continue to prohibit them from engaging in activity with US and non-US persons and, in addition, these amendments to the GTSR now impose new sanctions to prohibit the designated IRGC affiliates from receiving humanitarian donations and other forms of assistance. OFAC has provided a list of the IRGC affiliates subject to these amendments here.