Trade Policy

On Friday, December 13, 2024, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it has initiated an investigation into Nicaragua’s acts, policies, and practices related to labor rights, human rights, and the rule of law under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. This investigation marks a historic first under Section 301, focusing on

On July 9, 2024, the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF) issued its annual update to its guidelines enforcing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (“UFLPA”) in a Report to Congress titled “2024 Updates to the Strategy to Prevent the Importation of Goods Mined, Produced, or Manufactured with Forced Labor in the People’s Republic of

On June 5, 2024, Solvay USA LLC (“Petitioner”), filed a petition for the imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties on U.S. imports of Vanillin from the People’s Republic of China.

SCOPE OF THE INVESTIGATION

The following language describes the imported merchandise from China that is within the scope of this Petition:

The merchandise covered by

As previewed over the course of the last month, the Biden Administration has announced that intends to increase Section 301 tariff rates for a host of products, including critical minerals used in battery production, and solar cells and modules. Today’s announcement comes in the context of the U.S. Trade Representative completing its four-year review of

On March 22, 2024, the Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) released its anticipated new final countervailing duty regulations authorizing the agency to investigate subsidies provided by third country governments to manufacturers in the country under investigation.  From 1997 to the present, Commerce limited its examination of subsidies to those programs and benefits provided by the investigated

In a February 27, 2024 opinion issued by Judge Gary S. Katzmann, the Court of International Trade held that Ninestar Corporation and its corporate affiliates (“Ninestar”), Chinese manufacturers and sellers of laser printers and printer-related products, were unlikely to succeed on the merits of a case challenging their placement on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention

Washington D.C., USA - March 1, 2020: Sign of U.S. Customs and Border Protection on the building in Washington D.C., USA, the largest federal law enforcement agency.

A recent ruling analyzed whether certain functions performed in preparation for filing an entry with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) arise to the level of “Customs Business” that must be performed by a licensed broker. Ruling HQ H326926, issued to Heizwerthy Customs & Freight Solutions (“Heizwerthy”), states that allowing an unlicensed company to extract

On December 26, 2023, the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) announced that it will further extend 352 reinstated exclusions and 77 COVID-related exclusions to duties imposed on goods from China pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 until May 31, 2024.  USTR imposed Section 301 duties in four tranches or “lists,” and

On December 8, 2023, Senators Bill Cassidy and Sheldon Whitehouse introduced a new version of the Customs Modernization bill to amend the Tariff Act of 1930. The new proposal comes over two years after Senator Cassidy initially proposed draft legislation, which we explained in a prior post. The most recent proposed bill aims to

On September 6, 2023, the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) announced that it will extend 352 reinstated exclusions and 77 COVID-related exclusions to duties imposed on goods from China pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.  The USTR imposed Section 301 duties in four tranches or “lists,” and it established a process