November 2020

The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued General License 8G (“GL 8G”), which authorizes five (5) U.S. oil and gas companies to engage in transactions “ordinarily incident and necessary to the limited maintenance of essential operations, contracts or other agreements”, as well as transactions necessary to the wind down of operations in Venezuela involving Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (“PdVSA”) or any entity which PdVSA owns a 50% or greater interest and that were in effect prior to July 26, 2019.  Effective November 17, 2020, GL 8G replaces and supersedes GL 8F which was set to expire on December 1, 2020, effectively extending its deadline through 12:01 eastern daylight time on June 3, 2021.  GL 8G applies specifically to the following entities and their subsidiaries: Chevron Corporation, Halliburton, Schlumberger Ltd., Baker Hughes (a GE company), and Weatherford International, PLC.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) recently issued a final rule, effective November 18, 2020, which revises certain provisions of the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) to implement enforcement provisions pursuant to the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (“ECRA”), which expanded the export control authorities available to the Secretary of Commerce.  BIS also amended the EAR with respect to the issuance of licenses and denial orders and the payment of civil penalties, not directly related to implementation of ECRA.

On November 16, 2020, the European Commission (“EC”) debuted their new complaints system for stakeholders to report harmful trade barriers and violations to European Union (“EU”) trade agreements. The “Single Entry Point” complaints system allows member states, companies, trade associations, civil society groups and EU citizens to report any market access barriers and…

The Trump Administration has encountered further setbacks in its efforts to prevent Chinese company ByteDance Ltd. (“ByteDance”) from providing its popular social media app TikTok in the U.S.  For background:

  • On August 6, 2020, President Trump issued Executive Order 13942 (“EO 13942”) which: (i) determined that ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok threatened U.S. national security, and

…

President Trump issued an Executive Order (“E.O.”) on November 12, 2020 titled “Addressing the Threat from Securities Investments that Finance Communist Chinese Military Companies.”  The E.O., which will be published in the Federal Register on November 17, 2020 and will take effect on January 11, 2021 at 9:30 eastern standard time, designates thirty one (31)…

On November 10, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) announced the initiation of antidumping (“AD”) and countervailing duty (“CVD”) investigations on Utility Scale Wind Towers from India, Malaysia, and Spain (Spain is AD only). The petitioners in this case are the Wind Tower Trade Coalition. See our previous post summarizing the petition for details…

The European Union (EU) has imposed additional tariffs on approximately $4 billion worth of U.S. goods, after a World Trade Organization (WTO) decision last month authorized proportionate retaliation against the U.S. for its subsidies to Boeing.  According to the European Commission’s (EC) Implementing Regulation (“the Regulation”), published in the Official Journal of the European Union…

In a November 3, 2020 letter, U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) Robert E. Lighthizer requested that the International Trade Commission (“ITC”) “monitor and investigate imports of strawberries and bell peppers” pursuant to section 332(g) of the Tariff Act of 1930.  Section 332 is a provision that allows USTR to ask for a fact-finding investigation by the…

Under the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (“ECRA”), the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) is authorized to establish controls on the export, reexport or in-country transfer of “emerging and foundational technologies.”  On August 27, 2020, BIS issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, requesting comments on the definition…

On November 2, 2020, the White House released a notice continuing the national emergency with respect to Sudan declared in Executive Order 13067 of 1997.  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a press statement clarifying that the United States is continuing certain Sudan-related sanctions pursuant to obligations to the United Nations (“UN”), but that the…