Customs & Import Compliance Blog

In the last few years, changes to the United States enforcement stance on the forced labor import ban authorized by 19 U.S.C. § 1307 and passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) have fundamentally changed the way that companies operating in the United States conduct business operations worldwide.

Two years after the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine and one week after the death of opposition politician and anticorruption activist Aleksey Navalny, the US government announced a new raft of sanctions and export controls targeting nearly 600 individuals and entities.

On February 14, Cornerstone Chemical Company (Petitioner) filed antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) petitions on melamine from Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Qatar, and Trinidad and Tobago.

In this installment of Five Questions, Five Answers, Birgit Matthiesen is joined by Dr. Austin Brown, the Office Director at the US Department of Energy (DOE) Vehicle Technologies Office.

In the latest installment of Five Questions, Five Answers, Birgit Matthiesen is joined by Leah Scarpelli, a Partner with the firm’s International Trade & Investment Practice.

Aluminum is clearly an important material for the industry as there is an objective for making vehicles as light as possible. Aluminum issues may start with Tariff Classification and Country of Origin questions, and can lead to more complex issues, including Section 232 tariffs or other high-tariff trade barriers.

Critical minerals — the lithium, graphite, cobalt, manganese, and other key minerals that are later processed into battery-grade chemicals — represent the essential ingredients in any electric vehicle (EV) battery.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), in many ways, can be a game changer for many automotive companies. First and foremost, eligibility of products deemed USMCA compliant benefit from zero US import tariffs.

For readers who may not be fully apprised of what these tariffs are, we offer a short summary.

We chose to include a discussion of this important but lesser understood policy area because of the likelihood of their impact — both adverse and positive — on many companies’ procurement and production plans.

The Electric Mobility industry is on track for another exciting year. However, current and forthcoming US agency regulations continue to inject confusion and costs in critical supply decisions, for which legal tools can provide near- and long-term solutions.

Recent government actions illustrate that US-China trade relations will continue to be a focus as the United States enters an election year.