July 2019

On July 10, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) announced that it had opened an investigation directed at the Government of France under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.  The announcement came as the French Senate considered a new digital services tax (“DST”)—enacted a day later—imposing a 3% revenue tax on companies providing certain online services directed at French customers that earn annual revenues of at least €25 million in France and at least €750 million worldwide.

As previously reported  in our International Trade Insights blog, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) added Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (“Huawei”) and sixty-eight of its affiliate companies to the BIS Entity List effective May 16, 2019. This designation prohibits anyone inside or outside of the United States from exporting, re-exporting or making an in-country transfer of commodities, software or technology that is subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) to any of the listed Huawei companies without an appropriate license from BIS.  Commodities, software and technology are “subject to the EAR” when they are of U.S. origin (regardless of whether they are located inside or outside the U.S.), physically present in the U.S., moving in transit through the U.S. or produced outside of the U.S. with qualifying amounts of controlled U.S.-origin content.  The BIS designations for these Huawei companies require BIS to evaluate any license applications according to a general presumption of denial.  BIS has also issued a Temporary General License (covered here in the International Trade Insights blog) which authorizes limited transactions with Huawei Entity List companies under certain contracts that existed on or before May 16, 2019.  This Temporary General License is currently scheduled to expire on August 19, 2019.

Husch Blackwell is pleased to announce its sponsorship of the 2019 USA Go Global Awards. The USA Go Global Awards is an awards system which celebrates the business strategies, technologies and innovations of manufacturers, exporters and related service providers who are helping to drive the US economy forward. Husch Blackwell is one of the proud presenting sponsors of the awards which will be presented in Chicago, Illinois, during the 2019 Think Global Conference, October 23rd, 2019.

On July 8, 2019, Petitioners Advanced Extrusion Inc. (“Advanced Extrusion”), Ex-Tech Plastics, Inc. (“Ex-Tech”), and Multi-Plastics Extrusions, Inc. (“Multi-Plastics”) filed a petition for the imposition of antidumping duties on imports of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Sheet from Korea, Mexico and Oman.

Court of International Trade

Summary of Decisions

19-66

On June 3, 2019, in the ongoing case of determining whether or not Plaintiff Midwest Fastener’s zinc and nylon anchor products are considered to be nails, the CIT sustained the Department of Commerce’s final results of the redetermination pursuant to the Court Remand. The CIT concluded that Plaintiff’s zinc and nylon anchors do not function like nails and are considered a separate type of product from nails by the relevant industry. Commerce’s remand results were sustained and Plaintiff Midwest Fastener’s products were excluded from the scope.

19-69

On June 6, the CIT denied Plaintiffs Confederacion de Asociaciones Agricolas del Estado de Sinaloa, Consejo Agricola de Baja California, Asociacion Mexicana de Horticultura Protegida, Asociacion de Productores de Hortalizas del Yaqui y Mayo, and Sistem Producto Tomate (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) motion for a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) and preliminary injunction (“PI”) in the antidumping duty investigation of tomatoes from Mexico. The Court determined that the Plaintiffs had not met their burden to establish the likelihood of success on the merits and irreparable harm absent injunctive relief. They also had failed to establish if the hardships tip in favor of denying the Plaintiff’s motion. The Court also found the public interest to be neutral. For those reasons the CIT denied the plaintiff’s motions.

U.S. International Trade Commission

Section 701/731 Proceedings

Investigations
  • Mattresses from the People’s Republic of China: On June 13, 2019, the ITC released the schedule for the final phase of the Antidumping Duty Investigation.
  • Fresh Tomatoes from Mexico: On June 14, 2019, the ITC announced the resumption of the final phase of the Antidumping Duty Investigation.
  • Stainless Steel Kegs from the People’s Republic of China, Germany, and Mexico: On June 17, 2019, the ITC released the schedule of the Final Phase of Countervailing and Antidumping Duty Investigations.
  • Glycine from the People’s Republic of China, India, Japan: On June 21, 2019, the ITC released the final determinations in the Antidumping Duty and Countervailing Duty investigations.
  • Aluminum Wire and Cable from the People’s Republic of China: On June 28, 2019, the ITC released the schedule for the final phase of the Countervailing Duty and Antidumping Duty Investigations.

Investigations

  • Certain Steel Nails from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: On June 19, 2019, Commerce released a notice of its Final Scope Ruling and notice of the Amended Final Scope Ruling in the Antidumping and Countervailing duty orders of the subject merchandise.
  • Steel Propane Cylinders: On June 21, 2019, Commerce announced its final determinations in the Antidumping Duty Investigations for the People’s Republic of China and Thailand.
  • Steel Propane Cylinders from the People’s Republic of China: On June 21, 2019, Commerce released the final affirmative Countervailing Duty determination.
  • Carbon Steel Butt-Weld Pipe Fittings from the People’s Republic of China: On June 21, 2019, Commerce issued the final affirmative determination of Circumvention of the Antidumping Duty Order.
  • Glycine from India and Japan: On June 21, 2019, Commerce released the amended final affirmative Antidumping Duty determination.