On November 1, 2021, the Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) announced in the Federal Register the opportunity to request an annual administrative review for products that are currently subject to antidumping and countervailing duties. The products and countries that have been listed in the Federal Register notice are the following:
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) announced that the Department of the Treasury has reached an agreement with Austria, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom regarding the treatment of Digital Services Taxes (“DSTs”). The Department of Treasury reached the agreement in conjunction with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) global agreement. In coordination with the Department of Treasury, USTR plans to work together with these governments to ensure implementation of the agreement and rollback of existing DSTs.
As previously reported, in February 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14017 (“EO 14017”), which instructed various government agencies to review the current supply chain risks for critical sectors and subsectors of the Information and Communications Technology (“ICT”) industrial base and provide the executive branch with reports of identified risks. In order to comply with EO 14017, the Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) recently announced that it will host a virtual forum soliciting recommendations from the public on how to strengthen the resiliency of the ICT industrial base. The ICT industrial base consists of:
The Department of Commerce published its Final Determination in the antidumping (“AD”) and countervailing duty (“CVD”) investigation of Utility Scale Wind Towers from India on October 13, 2021, which investigation was initiated in November 2020. The AD/CVD petition was filed by Wind Tower Trade Coalition (“Petitioner”) and a complete summary of the original petition can be found here. The mandatory respondent selected by Commerce in both the antidumping and countervailing duty investigation was Vestas Wind Technology India Private Limited (“Vestas”).
With the support of the Executive Directors of The Port of Los Angeles (“Port of L.A.”) and the Port of Long Beach, and the President of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, President Biden announced on Wednesday October 13, 2021, after week of negotiations, that the Port of L.A. has agreed to begin operating 24/7. The Port of L.A. will join the Port of Long Beach, which has been running 24/7 for the past several weeks. Together, 40% of the containers imported to the United States go through these two ports.
On September 30, 2021, the Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) filed a motion requesting a voluntary remand to review 502 Section 232 exclusion request denials it issued to Voestalpine High Performance Metals Corporation and Ergo Specialty Steels, Incorporated (collectively “Voestalpine, et al.”) beginning in 2018. Specifically, Commerce in its motion acknowledges that it lacks documentation explaining why it rejected all 502 requests. This motion for voluntary remand comes only a couple months after Commerce requested the same type of voluntary remand in six separate Section 232 appeals.
On Sept. 20, the U.S. Department of Commerce published a new set of anti-dumping and countervailing duty regulations governing a multitude of administrative proceedings including:
• Changes to new shipper reviews;
• Scope ruling requests;
• Anti-circumvention inquiries;
• Covered merchandise referrals from U.S. Customs and Border Protection under the Enforce and Protect Act; and
On October 7, 2021, the U.S. Department of Commerce published a notice initiating new administrative reviews for antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders with August anniversary dates. Listed below are the countries and products named in the notice:
On October 6, 2021, Borusan Mannesmann Pipe U.S., Inc. (“Borusan U.S.”), PTC Liberty Tubulars LLC (“PTC”), U. S. Steel Tubular Products, Inc. (“U. S. Steel”), the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC (the “USW”), and Welded Tube USA, Inc. (“Welded Tube”) ( “Petitioners”), filed a petition for the imposition of antidumping duties on imports of oil country tubular goods from Argentina, Mexico, and Russia. In addition, the petition alleges that imports of oil country tubular goods from the Republic of Korea and Russia are unfairly subsidized and requests the imposition of countervailing duties.
On October 4, 2021, Ambassador Katherine Tai, the United States Trade Representative, addressed the state of U.S.- China trade relations and the upcoming plans for the Biden Administration to improve foreign trade policy. Since taking office in January, the Administration has spent time reviewing the trade policies put in place under the Trump Administration. There has been little movement until now as to the stance the Biden Administration would take, which created uncertainty regarding U.S. trade policy with China. Speculation grew as many questioned what would happen with the tariffs imposed on Chinese imports (under Section 301), how the administration would address the shortcomings of the “Phase 1” deal, and whether the product exclusion process would be re-instated.