Frances Hadfield

Photo of Frances Hadfield
Firm/Organization: Crowell & Moring LLP
Blogs: Trade Secrets Trends, International Trade Law, Retail & Consumer Products Law Observer

Latest Articles

On August 16, 2018, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register the formal notice for the China Section 301 tariffs beginning on August 23. The USTR published the final list of 279 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) subheadings known collectively as ‘List 2’ on August 7, 2018. These tariff lines will see an additional ad valorem duty of 25% on products from China and is worth…
On August 10, 2018, President Trump issued a new Proclamation Adjusting Imports of Steel into the United States from Turkey. Steel articles covered by Section 232 from Turkey are now subject to an ad valorem duty rate of 50%. On August 12, 2018, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) issued Cargo Systems Messaging Service (CSMS) #18-000477, which stated: The increased duty rates began at 12:01 a.m. EDT on August 13, 2018. In addition to…
The USTR announced on August 3rd that it will review Turkey’s eligibility for the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program that grants duty-free access to the U.S. market. GSP is a U.S. trade program designed to promote economic growth in the developing world by providing preferential duty-free entry for up to 4,800 products from 129 designated beneficiary countries and territories. Concern over Turkey’s “compliance with the GSP market access criterion,” led the USTR to initiate…
  On August 7, 2018, EU’s newly updated Blocking Statute entered into force. The Blocking Statute generally forbids EU citizens and established entities, residents, and persons physically in the EU from complying with a variety of U.S. measures imposing secondary sanctions on Iran, including the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996, the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act of 2012, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, and the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human…
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On Monday, August 6, 2018, President Trump issued a new Executive Order (New Iran EO) that reimposes Iran sanctions previously revoked as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), consolidates the relevant authorities into one single document, and broadens the scope of previous sanctions restrictions. This action coincides with the expiration of the 90-day wind down period for a number of transactions previously authorized as part of the Agreement. OFAC also updated and…
On August 8, China released its list of retaliatory tariffs on $16 billion in U.S. goods. This was in direct response to the USTR’s announcement on August 7 of the final List 2 of Section 301 tariffs on $16 billion in Chinese imports. The Chinese Ministry of Finance’s list released today includes an additional 219 tariff items that were added to the list China originally released back in June. Both the U.S. and China are setting tariff rates at 25%…
On August 7, 2018, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released a final list of approximately $16 billion worth of imports from China that will be subject to a 25 percent additional tariff. The list contains 279 of the original 284 tariff lines that were on a proposed list announced on June 15. Update: the five tariff items that were excluded from the final List 2 are: 3913.10.00 Alginic acid, and its salts and esters, in…
On July 26, 2018, the Senate unanimously passed the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Act of 2018 (MTB), a bill that would cut or eliminate tariffs on articles such as chemicals, footwear, toasters, and roughly 1,660 other items made outside the United States. Roughly half of those items are produced in China. The bill was passed without debate. The last MTB passed by Congress expired on December 31, 2012. President Trump had announced a series of punitive …
In a press release issued on August 1, United States Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer announced the President directed him to consider increasing the proposed level of the additional duty on the latest Section 301 List (List 3 worth $200 billion) from 10% to 25%. On August 3, China responded in kind and threatened to increase retaliatory tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. goods should President Trump move forward with new tariffs on imports…
On July 10, 2018, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer announced that at President Trump’s request, USTR has initiated the process of imposing an additional 10 percent ad valorem duty on approximately $200 billion worth of imports from China. The USTR statement included a link to an advance copy of the Federal Register Notice with the list of proposed tariffs and the process for the public notice and comment period. This is the formal publication …