February 2022

On February 22, 2022, one day after the Russian Federation formally recognized the Donetsk People’s Republic (“DNR”) and Luhansk People’s Republic (“LNR”) of Ukraine as “independent states” and the Biden Administration responded by imposing a sanctions embargo against the DNR and LNR regions, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) took further action against Russia by imposing new sanctions against the Russian financial services sector, Russian oligarchs and their family members.  OFAC imposed these additional sanctions using Executive Order 14024 (“EO 14024”), which was issued on April 15, 2021 and which authorizes OFAC to sanction operators in Russia’s technology and defense sectors as well as other sectors as determined by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in consultation with the U.S. Secretary of State. 

On February 21, 2022, U.S. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. issued an Executive Order (the “Ukraine Order”) in response to action taken earlier in the day by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin to recognize the Donetsk People’s Republic (“DNR”) and Luhansk People’s Republic (“LNR”) of Ukraine as “independent states”.  The DNR and LNR are two separatist bodies which have asserted governmental authority over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, respectively, without authorization from the Government of Ukraine.  In 2014, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) added the DNR and LNR to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (the “SDN List”) in their capacities as individual entities.  Since then, OFAC has also added multiple officials associated with the DNR and LNR to the SDN List.

On February 10, 2022, the Department of Commerce published a Federal Register notice requesting public comments on the Section 232 exclusions process.  The notice follows the agreement reached between the U.S. and the EU related to the tariff rate quotas for steel and aluminum articles from EU member countries and the President’s January 3, 2022 announcement, Adjusting Imports of Steel into the United States (Proclamation 10328).

The U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) announced on Friday that it was set to resume trade missions starting as early as March 2022.  Trade missions are government- led programs where members of the trade can meet directly with foreign industries and officials to explore potential business opportunities.  The COVID-19 pandemic brought these missions to a sudden halt in March 2020 and no trade missions have occurred in the past 24 month.  The International Trade Administration (“ITA”) is now preparing to resume in-person trade missions, where possible.

On February 7, 2022, the United States and Japan announced that both countries had agreed to a tariff-rate quote (TRQ) for steel imports from Japan.  The agreement will eliminate the Section 232 25% tariff on imports of steel from Japan that fall within the quota, effective April 1, 2022.   Commerce Secretary Gina M. Raimondo and…

On February 4, 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce published a notice initiating new administrative reviews for antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders with December anniversary dates. Listed below are the countries and products named in the notice:

  1. India
    1. Forged Steel Fittings (A–533–891)
  2. Oman
    1. Circular Welded Carbon-Quality Steel Pipe (A–523–812)
  3. Republic of Korea

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Effective January 13, 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau’s (“Census”) Automated Export System (“AES”) began issuing a response code 66Q notifying Electronic Export Information (“EEI”) filers whenever they enter an export control classification number (“ECCN”) and destination combination that is prohibited under the Export Administration Regulations’ (“EAR”) destination-based controls.  For now, such mismatches in filings will…

Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops at the Ukrainian border, leading the White House to issue a warning on January 25 that the U.S. is “prepared to implement sanctions with massive consequences that were not considered in 2014 [when Russia invaded and annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine]” if Russia “further invades Ukraine”.  President…