Section 301

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.

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.

On September 8, 2021, after a longstanding dispute, the US Court of International Trade issued an order resolving the steps that Plaintiffs will need to take in order to preserve their rights to receive refunds, in conformance with the injunction that was issued by the court on July 6, 2021.   The Government recently conceded that, as a practical matter, it does not have the resources to suspend liquidation on an ongoing basis to comply with the Court’s PI order. As a result, in lieu of suspension, the Government stipulated that it will rely on post-judgment reliquidation or refunds to provide the remedy in the event Plaintiffs’ claims are successful – the very solution that Plaintiffs had been advocating for since the entry of the PI order. As a result, the Court issued the attached Order lifting the PI and TRO and removing the requirement for a CBP repository.   Customs will continue liquidating entries in the ordinary course as they have done.

The United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) Katherine Tai announced 25% additional tariffs on approximately $2 billion worth of imported goods from Austria, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom (“UK”), which have adopted Digital Service Taxes (“DSTs”).  However, USTR also immediately suspended the tariffs for 180 days to provide additional time for ongoing multilateral…

The United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) announced the continuation of certain Section 301 investigations related to digital services taxes (“DSTs”) and the termination of certain others.  USTR originally initiated Section 301 DSTs investigations covering several countries on June 2, 2020 in response to those countries’ implementation or consideration of DSTs, which are taxes on revenues…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) published a notice of product exclusion extensions on March 10, 2021 to extend exclusions from additional Section 301 tariffs for certain medical-care products from China. USTR has extended these product exclusions from March 31, 2021 to September 30, 2021. The product exclusions were previously extended and modified…

In a joint statement released by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”), the U.S. and European Union (“EU”) have agreed to temporarily suspend the additional tariffs from the Large Civil Aircraft Dispute. Goods imported from EU countries, including dairy products and liquors, will temporarily not be subject to the additional 25 percent…

The U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) in consultation with relevant U.S. industry issued a notice stating that it is “unnecessary” to revise the Section 301 tariffs related to large civil aircraft subsidies provided by the European Union. The notice states that USTR will “continue to consider the action taken in the investigation” but can be understood…

The U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) is indefinitely suspending the Section 301 tariffs on certain handbags and cosmetics from France resulting from the investigation into France’s Digital Services Tax (“DST”). These additional tariffs were announced by USTR in July 2020 and were scheduled to go into effect on January 6, 2021. USTR is suspending the tariffs…

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) announced that it is extending certain product-specific exclusions related to the treatment of COVID-19 from the Section 301 tariffs on imports from China until March 31, 2021.  On March 25, 2020, the USTR announced that it was seeking comments on the possible exemption of medical goods…