Preliminary Determination in Solar Cells Circumvention Inquiry Is A Split Decision
More than nine months after initiating a highly consequential inquiry into whether imports of solar cells and modules from four Southeast Asian countries are circumventing antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) orders on Chinese-made solar cells (whether or not assembled into modules), the Commerce Department (DOC) on December 2 announced a split decision. The preliminary determinations conclude that some foreign producers’ operations constitute circumvention while others do not. That means there are fewer “non-Chinese” suppliers to the U.S. market. But the decision also provides some clarity and a roadmap on new rules for producing solar cells and modules that will not run afoul of DOC’s anticircumvention rules. Yet it may take some time before restructured supply chains in response to the new rules are in place. Split Decision DOC issued affirmative preliminary determinations of country-wide circumvention of the 2012 China Solar Cell AD/CVD Orders for all four countries under consideration, Cambodia, [...]
Competing Bills to Reform Section 232 Signal Bipartisan Congressional Displeasure, But No Guarantee of Enactment
After the unexpected resurrection of a long dormant trade law by President Trump in 2017 and 2018, Congress wants to reclaim some of its trade oversight authority in 2019. A pair of bipartisan, bicameral competing bills have been introduced in Congress to modify Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. §1862), the provision relied upon by President Trump to justify imposing additional duties or quotas on imports of steel and aluminum (and potentially on automobiles and auto parts and perhaps uranium) entering the United States on the ground that such imports threaten to impair U.S. national security. A close review of those bills provides some insight into why one of those bills has a greater likelihood of moving forward than the other, and why further revisions to any such bill are likely to be considered, to prevent a presidential veto. That review also indicates that [...]
Full-Spectrum Supply Chain Due Diligence Essential to Avoiding CBP and OFAC Violations
U.S. imports that are produced in part or whole in North Korea risk being denied entry or seized by U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) as products of forced labor. A newly revealed enforcement action by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) highlights that the importer also may face significant penalties under U.S. economic sanctions programs. Since 2015, when the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (TFTEA) was signed into law and expanded the authority of CBP to stop entries of products made with forced labor, U.S. importers have been on notice that (1) they need to monitor their supply chains to ensure that their imports are not produced with forced labor and (2) if there was any manufacturing performed in North Korea, an import would be presumed to be made with forced labor. Last summer, CBP’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, along with the Department [...]