On Tuesday, September 18, 2018, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced a process for obtaining product exclusions from the 25% tariffs on certain products imported from China as a response to the Section 301 investigation on China’s trade practices.

On Monday, September 17, 2018, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) finalized and released the list of  imported products from China  (approximately $200 billion)  for which additional tariffs are to be collected.  According to President Trump, the initial tariffs will take effect on September 24, 2018 at a rate of 10 percent.  At the direction of the President, he has instructed the USTR to, “increase the level of trade covered by the additional duties in order to obtain elimination of China’s unfair policies.”  Subsequently starting on January 1, 2019 this will increase to 25 percent.

Washington, DC — Today, WPC Technologies (“WPC”)  filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission, asserting that imports of strontium chromate from Austria and France are being sold in the United States at “dumped prices.” These unfair trade actions are alleged to have caused material injury to the U.S. strontium chromate industry.

On August 29, 2018, President Trump issued proclamations announcing that companies will be able to request exclusions from the Section 232 quantitative limitations (i.e., quotas) for certain steel and aluminum products imported in to the United States.  In particular, this affects steel and aluminum imports from Argentina, Brazil, and South Korea.

After President Trump announced steel and aluminum tariffs on several of the country’s allies in March 2018, a number of EU countries, Mexico, and Canada immediately announced retaliatory tariffs against American products. Other trade partners and allies have also made plans to seek remedies through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World

On August 7, 2018, the Office of the United States Trade Representative announced the second list of products that will be subject to an additional 25 percent tariff when imported from China.   After a public hearing and comment period, USTR ultimately only removed 5 tariff lines from the list proposed in its notice of June