The US executive and legislative branches are ratcheting up pressure on companies to address forced labor in their supply chains. The US Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) has in recent months announced a series of Withhold Release Orders (WROs) and a Finding following investigations into forced labor. Additionally, the US

The US Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) announced on September 14 the issuance of five new withhold release orders (WROs) on entities allegedly using forced labor in or from China’s western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The WROs bar the import into the United States of various goods alleged to

The Trump administration is considering a ban on US imports of Xinjiang-origin cotton and other products due to allegations of widespread forced labor. The scope of the possible restrictions has not been made public but credible reporting suggests that it could include cotton and tomato products from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) or wider

Steptoe’s International Trade group has put together a helpful guide to the new NAFTA (the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)).

The Agreement must still go through ratification and implementation processes in all three countries before it can enter into force. In the coming weeks, the Trump Administration will submit legislation to Congress to implement the USMCA. Before a vote can be taken in the United States, however, the Administration will first need to resolve concerns and objections raised by members of Congress from both parties, making any vote on the USMCA challenging before the congressional summer recess.

Although the USMCA carries over a number of NAFTA’s important market-opening elements, it also introduces a number of changes that carry potentially significant implications for business planning across many sectors.
Continue Reading USMCA Unlocked: Working Under the New NAFTA

On February 26, 2019, Steptoe, Greenlane, and the UK Trade Forum are hosting an interactive discussion on how customs authorities and companies around Europe are preparing for Brexit. The event will take place in London.

For more information and to register for the event, please click here.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced on the evening of May 23 that he would begin a Section 232 investigation into the national security implications of automobile imports. According to a Department of Commerce (DOC) statement, the investigation will “determine whether imports of automobiles, including SUVs, vans, light trucks, and automotive parts into the United

Very far, under existing US law. The authority already available to the President under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) is vast, and could be applied to Chinese investments with the (relatively) simple declaration of a national emergency related to such investments.  Reports have already been swirling about a plan by the Trump Administration to use IEEPA to impose tighter restrictions on Chinese investment in sensitive sectors of the US economy, or to implement by executive order parts of the CFIUS reform legislation under consideration by Congress.  But IEEPA could be used far more broadly than that.

Although rumors of new trade and investment restrictions against China have been in circulation for several months, the President’s March 22 order in response to the “Section 301 investigation” on Chinese trade practices has brought those rumors into sharper focus.  In his order, President Trump directed the Secretary of the Treasury to develop options “under any available statutory authority” that could be used “to address concerns about investment in the United States directed or facilitated by China in industries or technologies deemed important to the United States.” 
Continue Reading How Far Can the US Take Trade and Investment Restrictions on China?

The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) published on April 3, 2018 a proposed list of products imported from China to target with an additional 25% tariff. These tariffs have been proposed in response to USTR’s findings in an investigation conducted under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (Section 301) and would