The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2019 was signed into law on Friday, February 15, 2019, so the potential for another shutdown was averted, but there was a hidden gem buried in a related document. This new law contains a specific appropriation for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office which reads: “For necessary expenses of the Office

Over the weekend, President Trump announced a deal with China. The result is the 10% tariff imposed on goods on List 3 of Chinese made goods will remain in place for an additional 90 days rather than increase to 25% on January 1, 2019. The challenge is there was no joint communique issued by the

The U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) issued a press release on July 6, 2018 in which the process companies can use to seek exclusion from the 25% tariff imposed on the same day on goods from China was announced. The timeline requires all original exclusion requests to be filed by October 9, 2018. Each will be

Originally published by the Journal of Commerce in June 2018.

There was a strong temptation to title this column – What the Football!  President Trump has spent a good deal of his time recently excoriating professional football players about their actions when it comes to the nation anthem. He seems to have not spent even

Originally published by the Journal of Commerce in May 2018  as part of its 100 Top Importers and Exporters Edition

Old movie buffs immediately recognize the inspiration for the title. There was a movie released in 1950 starring Bette Davis called All About Eve. Its most famous lines have bearing on current events impacting global

Canada

Canada’s export controls go beyond dual-use goods, chemicals, defence and military items, and other goods on the Export Control List.  Canada imposes export controls under a variety of statutes and regulations.  For example, Canada controls exports of cannabis, cultural property, hazardous waste, hazardous recyclable and scrap materials, rough diamond, human pathogens, honey, maple syrup,

On November 17, 2017, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (“CITT”) announced the commencement of the antidumping/countervailing duty injury inquiry in respect of polyethylene terephthalate resin (PET resin) originating in or exported from China, India, Oman, and Pakistan. The Subject Goods are defined as “PET resin having an intrinsic viscosity of at least 0.70 deciliters per

On September 21, 2017, President Trump issued an Executive Order (yet to be numbered) (“EO”) imposing additional sanctions on North Korea. It took affect the next day. The general press has quoted Treasury Secretary Mnuchin as stating: “Foreign financial institutions are now on notice that going forward they can choose to do business with the

Two actions took place at the end of last week which heighten concerns that a trade war with China could be ever more likely.  First, there was the preliminary decision in the solar panels 201 case.  Then, we had the additional sanctions imposed by the President on North Korea.

The 201 solar panel case began

Canada

On August 18, 2017, the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) issued a Notice of Initiation stating that it has initiated both an antidumping investigation and a subsidy investigation against PET Resin from China, India, Oman and Pakistan.

The subject goods are defined as follows:

“Polyethylene terephthalate (“PET”) resin having an intrinsic viscosity of at