Originally published by the Journal of Commerce in April 2018

The brewing trade war between the U.S. and China serves as a reminder to international traders that knowing where your goods are made and being able to prove it are two very different issues.  At a time when it remains common place for U.S. Customs

Since the original publication of this Alert, South Korea and the U.S. have concluded their negotiations regarding the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, and, as a result, South Korea has been permanently excluded from the steel and aluminum tariffs.

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Some events rather significant to international traders occurred in the last few days. First, on Friday,

When President Trump announced the 25% steel and 10% aluminum tariffs on March 8, 2018, he instructed the  Secretary of Commerce to issue regulations explaining how American companies could seek exclusions from those tariffs no later than March 19, 2018, and that deadline has been met.  These new regulations can be found at:  https://www.commerce.gov/sites/commerce.gov/files/federal_register_vol_83_no_53_monday_march_19_2018_12106-12112.pdf

Before

The ABI programming for the new Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) classifications implementing the steel and aluminum safeguard tariffs was released earlier today by CBP.

The HTS numbers added are:

9903.80.01        STEEL PROD, NOTE 19, EX CA/M        25%

9903.85.01        ALUMINUM PROD, NOTE 19, EX CA/M    10%

with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for

Our good friend and Australian lawyer – Andrew Hudson – has published an article about the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs with an interesting take based on current events in Australia.

Andrew’s article can be found on the Rigby Cooke website at http://www.rigbycooke.com.au/latest/new-trump-tariffs-tip-of-trade-iceberg. It has also been published in the DCN at http://www.thedcn.com.au/the-new-trump-tariffs-the-tip-of-the-trade-iceberg/ (subscription required).

Earlier today, March 8, 2018, President Trump signed two Presidential Proclamations, one dealing with additional tariffs on steel and the other with additional tariffs on aluminum. As has been widely reported in the general press, those rates are 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum. The only countries exempted are Canada and Mexico.

Steel articles

Originally published by the Journal of Commerce in February 2018

Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) and other federal enforcement agencies seizing goods or imposing penalties is not unexpected. However, there are other consequences triggered by the actions of private actors which present equal danger to importers. In particular,  there is the False Claims Act (“FCA”),

In the week of August 16, 2017, Canada’s NAFTA modernization team met in Washington D.C. with the United States Trade Representative’s NAFTA renegotiation team and Mexico’s NAFTA modernization team. At the end of the meeting, they issued a Trilateral Statement on the Conclusion of NAFTA Round One and indicated that Round Two will be held

On April 6, 2017, Seth Godin posted “On Pie” on his blog.  I have thought about what Seth Godin wrote in “On Pie” many times when Canada, US or Canada-US trade issues arise, such as the Softwood Lumber AD/CVD Dispute, the 232 Steel Case, the 232 Aluminum Case, the Canadian FISC AD/CVD Case, NAFTA renegotiation,