2019

In a sudden announcement after 8pm on Friday May 31, 2019, the President made the anticipated decision that India was to be removed from the Generalized System of Preferences (“GSP”), effective June 5, 2019.  The statement issued by the White House claims that the President had “determined that India has not assured the United States that India will provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets.” The end of GSP eligibility and removal of India’s developing country status comes after holding that status for approximately 30 years and is a deepening indication of the U.S.’s increased protectionist stance in the global trading environment.  Last month the U.S. ended Turkey’s preferential status.

Key Facts:

  • President Trump is imposing tariffs on all imported goods from Mexico beginning on June 10, 2019
  • The tariff rate will begin at 5% and increase to 10% on July 1, 15% on August 1, 20% on September 1, and 25% on October 1, 2019.
  • The tariffs will remain at 25% until “Mexico substantially stops the illegal inflow of aliens coming through its territory”

On May 30, 2019, President Trump announced that he would impose tariffs on all imported goods from Mexico beginning on June 10, 2019 at a 5% duty rate and increasing an additional 5% each month for three months.

On Tuesday, May 21, 2019, USTR and the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) published in the Federal Register a request for comments on the Section 301 exclusion process for Tranche 3 tariffs which were increased from 10% to 25% on May 10, 2019. The notice also included a draft exclusion request form for the List 3 products. The draft exclusion request form includes more data requirements on U.S. and third-party sourcing, overall gross revenue, and on whether the company has applied for and/or received previous exclusion requests.

Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has published a Temporary General License for specific, limited engagement in transactions with Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. and its sixty-eight non-U.S. affiliates which were added to the BIS Entity List effective May 16, 2019. (See our previous post here).  The license is intended to allow Huawei and its affiliates to work temporarily with U.S. companies to continue to support current customers, headsets and to release software updates for existing hardware.

On May 17, 2019, after numerous rounds of negotiations, the United States, Canada, and Mexico issued formal statements on lifting duties on Section 232 steel and aluminum products. While Canada and the U.S. explicitly stated that their respective tariffs would be lifted within the next two days, Mexico has yet to announce how quickly their retaliatory tariffs would end.

On Wednesday, May 15, 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) announced in a press release that it would add Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (“Huawei”) and additional Huawei affiliates to BIS’s Entity List.  BIS’s initial press release stated that this designation would become effective upon its publication in the Federal Register (which is scheduled for May 21, 2019).  However, a copy of the designation action posted in the Federal Register Public Inspection List on Thursday, May 16, 2019 stated that the designation would take effect on its May 16 Public Inspection List display date.  BIS explained that it is making this designation because it determined that “[T]here is reasonable cause to believe that Huawei has been involved in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”  Among other reasons, BIS specifically cited Huawei’s Superseding Indictment in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York for violating US sanctions against Iran.