Tag Archives: Trump

Breaking news – Trump allows US companies to sell to Huawei.

June 29, 2019 By in Huawei, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , Leave a comment
Donald_Trump_official_portrait

Official portrait of President Donald J. Trump, Friday, October 6, 2017. (Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead)

In comments at the G20 Summit, Trump was quoted as saying:

“One of the things I will allow, however, is, a lot of people are surprised we send and we sell to Huawei a tremendous amount of product that goes into the various things that they make. And I said that that’s okay, that we will keep selling that product. These are American companies… that make product and that’s very complex, by the way, and highly scientific. And in some cases we’re the ones that do it, we’re the only ones that do it. What we’ve done in Silicon Valley is incredible, actually and nobody has been able to compete with it, and I’ve agreed and pretty easily, I’ve agreed to allow them to continue to sell that product. So American companies will continue and they were having a problem, the companies were not exactly happy that they couldn’t sell because they had nothing to do with whatever it was potentially happening with respect to Huawei, so I did do that.”

Based off Trump’s comments, hardware components from US companies such as Intel and Micron can continue to sell to Huawei.

Will post more official verification as soon as it becomes available.

If you have questions about the Huawei BIS entity ban, contact experienced export compliance attorney David Hsu by phone/text at 832-896-6288 or by email at dh@gjatradelaw.com, attorney.dave@yahoo.com.

US China Truce (for now)?

June 29, 2019 By in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Donald_Trump_official_portrait

Official portrait of President Donald J. Trump, Friday, October 6, 2017. (Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead)

At this week’s G20 meeting, President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping agreed to a temporary truce and restart trade talks. This means the current U.S. tariffs will remain in place, but the trade penalties proposed for Section 301, List 4 will be put on hold pending an outcome of what will be the 12th round of trade talks.

List 4 covers approximately $300 billion in goods from China, and if in place, Lists 1-4 effectively cover every import from China.

However, both sides still differ on one item that may prevent a long term solution – trade secrets.

In response, China has also placed tariffs on $110 billion in US goods, mostly focusing on agricultural imports. Some believe the tariffs against farm products (and Trump supporters) are aimed towards pressuring Trump as he heads into the general election next year.

If you have goods under List 3 and want to file an exclusion, contact David Hsu by phone/text at 832-896-6288 or by email at attorney.dave@yahoo.com, dh@gjatradelaw.com.

Chinese drone manufacturer DJI to shift some production to America.

June 27, 2019 By in Drone, Made in USA, Uncategorized Tags: , , , 1 Comment
black dji mavic drone

– Photo by Mudassir Ali on Pexels.com

Well known Chinese drone manufacturer – DJI will shift some production to the US to counter growing skepticism from the Trump administration. The Trump administration has suspected the flying drones could be used to send surveillance data back to China.

DJI announced they would open a production facility in Cerritos, California to assemble a version of their drone that is popular with federal and other government agencies. Known as the “Government Edition”, the new drones can only save data on the drone itself and not transmit any data, additionally, the information saved on the drone can only be accessed once the drone lands – there is no ability to wirelessly transmit information through the drone.

With a 70 percent market share for all drones in the US, it is no wonder DJI is taking great effort to be on the good side of the Trump administration.

Do you say your goods are “Made in the USA”? That’s great, and if you do, be sure you meet all the requirements to say your goods are “Made in the USA”. Contact country of origin expert David Hsu at 832-896-6288 or by email at dh@gjatradelaw.com, attorney.dave@yahoo.com for a free no cost or obligation consultation.

Trump issues order for agencies to buy US made steel, aluminum and cement.

February 7, 2019 By in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment
Donald_Trump_official_portrait.jpg

U.S. President Donald J. Trump. Official portrait from whitehouse.gov

U.S. President Donald J. Trump signed a new executive order late January to further his “Buy America” initiative. The new executive order encourages government agencies to purchase a wider range of US made materials for infrastructure projects such as steel, aluminum and cement.

President Trump’s first “Buy America” executive order was signed in 2017, called the “Buy American, Hire American” executive order.

The executive order also requires the head of each agency to submit a report to President Trump identifying new opportunities to use Buy America rules. The reports are due by May 31st.

Full text of the executive order can be found here.

United States-Mexico Trade Agreement

August 31, 2018 By in Uncategorized, United States-Mexico Trade Agreement Tags: , , , Leave a comment
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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The US and Mexico reached a tentative agreement that overhauls the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Part of the agreements reached between the parties include:

  1. Stricter rules for Mexican car exports to the US – including a requirement that 75% of the content be made in North America and 40-45% of the content made with workers earning at least $16/hour (three times more than Mexico’s minimum wage). This has the goal of discouraging companies to relocate to lower wage Mexico.
  2. Mexico has agreed to pass a law giving workers the right to union representation, and to adopt labor laws that meet UN standards.
  3. Certain steel and aluminum must be sourced in North America
  4. New rules to country of origin for textiles, chemicals, industrial goods.
  5. Intellectual property, copyright holders will have copy right protection in markets of all member countries.
  6. Digital trade, tariffs will be prohibited for digital products that are distributed electronically.
  7. Agriculture, the US and Mexico agreed not to impose tariffs on each other’s agricultural goods and not to use export subsidies.

Call David Hsu if you have any further questions on the new U.S.-Mexico Trade Agreement at 832.896.6288 or by email at attorney.dave@yahoo.com.

Breaking news – Section 301 Statement by US Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer and list of Chinese goods impacted by $200 billion in tariffs.

July 11, 2018 By in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment
800px-Robert_E._Lighthizer_official_portrait

Robert Lighthizer, official portrait, work of the U.S. Federal Government

U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer released a statement today regarding Section 301 of the Trade Act.

The full statement can be read here.

Here’s a summary of the statement:
1. Last Friday, US started imposing tariffs of 25% on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports.
2. Will eventually cover $50 billion in Chinese imports.
3. Tariffs are against products that benefit from China’s industrial policy and forced technology transfer practices.
4. China retaliated with $34 billion in tariffs and threats on $16 billion more.
5. In resopnse to China’s retaliation, President Trump ordered tariffs of 10% on an additional $200 billion in Chinese imports.

Brief history of the 301 tariffs:
1. Last August (2017), President Trump asked USTR to begin the Section 301 process. The basis of the 301 was due to China’s”abusive trading practices with regard to intellectual property and innovation.”
2. USTR conducted investigation, published 200 page report showing: “China has been engaging in industrial policy which has resulted in the transfer and theft of intellectual property and technology to the detriment of our economy and the future of our workers and businesses. ”
3. The USTR also found these “practices are an existential threat to America’s most critical comparative advantage and the future of our economy: our intellectual property and technology.”

To view the Federal Register notice and list of proposed tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports, click here.

If you have any questions how these 301 tariffs may impact your business, or if you would like to submit comments to the US Government, please contact experienced trade attorney David Hsu at 832-896-6288 or by email at attorney.dave@yahoo.com.

ZTE deal is good to go – House bill does not include Senate language “undoing” ZTE deal.

July 3, 2018 By in Uncategorized Tags: , , , 1 Comment
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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Last Thursday, the US House of Representatives (“House”) passed its version of the defense appropriations bill, formally known as the the “John McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019”, or “NDAA” for short.

The House bill passed on a 359-49 vote and authorized $675 billion in defense spending for next year. The final bill does include the Senate language prohibiting ZTE and Huawei from selling goods or services to the Pentagon.

More importantly, the final bill does not include Senate language that would have “undone” ZTE’s deal ($1 billion in fines, US government oversight, $400k in escrow, etc.) Despite bipartisan support in the Senate for amended language that would have prevented a deal with ZTE, the House did the right thing and removed this amendment from the final bill.

News of this final bill probably won’t make it to the news outlets, but this final bill is a win for President Trump and the administration – and will be the first time the US Government has had oversight of a large Chinese company.

With the ZTE deal saved and ZTE now eligible to buy hardware and software from US companies – companies such as Qualcomm, Lumentum, Oclaro, Broadcom, Intel, MACOM, Semtech, and other U.S.-based vendors in the ZTE supply chair are probably breathing a sigh of relief.

Check back for more ZTE news, if you have any questions about ZTE, trade or customs law, contact David Hsu at 832-896-6288 or by email at attorney.dave@yahoo.com.

Trump claims Harley Davidson using tariffs as an excuse to close US plant and move to Thailand.

June 26, 2018 By in European Union, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment
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Photo by Quintin Gellar on Pexels.com

Back in April 27th of this year, I wrote on my blog post here that I suspected Harley Davidson was using international trade, tariffs and the US withdraw of the TPP as excuses for two unpopular moves by the company: (1) closing a Missouri factory and (2) moving production to Thailand.

As Harley Davidson is a foreign entity in Thailand, it is not easy for Harley Davidson to just decide to open a factory in Thailand overnight, here’s why you can’t just open a factory overnight –

It takes time and planning, sometimes years of planning – corruption and lack of transparency in government and state agencies, high tariffs on imports (ad valorem tariffs from 50-80% according to export.gov), changes in Thailand’s legal frame work increasing rule of law and consumer protection, higher insurance premiums and a lengthy patent registration process (export.gov claims the patent process may take several years). This doesn’t include the time to find the space, building or retrofiting an existing factory, hiring and training a local work force, working out the logistics to get supplies to the assembly line and then all the permitting, registration and other red tape needed.

Today, July 26, 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump accused Harley-Davidson of using trade tensions as an excuse to move production overseas:

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Early this year Harley-Davidson said they would move much of their plant operations in Kansas City to Thailand. That was long before Tariffs were announced. Hence, they were just using Tariffs/Trade War as an excuse. Shows how unbalanced &amp; unfair trade is, but we will fix it…..</p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href=”https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1011568906992017408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>June 26, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js&#8221; charset=”utf-8″></script>

Reuters reported that the plan for the Thailand-made motorcycles would be shipped to the EU to avoid any potential tariffs on US goods. It is estimated the tariffs could cost anywhere from $90 to $100 million per year. The Reuters article also mentioned the move would not result in retail or wholesale price increases in the EU.

Check back for more updates as they become available.

Trump threatens tariffs on imports of European cars.

June 24, 2018 By in Audi, BMW, European Union, Uncategorized Tags: , , , Leave a comment
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Photo by Torsten Dettlaff on Pexels.com

According to Bloomberg, the Trump administration threatened a tariff of 20% on cars imported from the European Union if the EU does not remove import duties on U.S. goods.

President Trump tweeted:

“Based on the Tariffs and Trade Barriers long placed on the U.S. and it great companies and workers by the European Union, if these Tariffs and Barriers are not soon broken down and removed, we will be placing a 20% Tariff on all of their cars coming into the U.S. Build them here!” Trump said in a tweet on Friday.

Not mentioned in the Bloomberg article – but some European manufacturers already make vehicles in the US. For example, Mercedes-Benz builds their GLE SUV, GLS SUV, the C-Class and the GLE Coupe in Alabama. BMW builds their X3, X4, X5, X6, and X7 models in South Carolina. Mexico is also host to manufacturing for Audi’s Q5 and VW’s Tiguan and Jetta models.

The EU has already imposed tariffs on $3.3 billion in U.S. goods and would impose further tariffs in the event the U.S. goes through with the import car tariffs.

Further updates will be posted as they become available.

Trump administration considering new tariffs on imported vehicles.

May 23, 2018 By in Customs Lawyer, Import, trade law, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment
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Photo by lalesh aldarwish on Pexels.com

Reuters reports the Trump administration may consider imposing new tariffs on imported vehicles based under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.

A little bit of background – a section 232 investigation is conducted under the authority of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended and the purpose of a 232 investigation is to determine the effect of imports on the national security. Investigations may be initiated based on an application from an interested party, a request from the head of any department or agency, or may be self-initiated by the Secretary of Commerce.

Reuters reports the administration is currently considering tariffs of up to 25 percent for imported vehicles. As this was just announced, the plan is still not yet implemented and will receive much feedback from interest groups, foreign trading partners, domestic dealers of importer cars and anyone else involved in the import car business.

Check back for the latest news. If you have any questions about the current steel and aluminum tariffs initiated under section 232, contact experienced trade attorney – David Hsu at 832-896-6288 or by email at attorney.dave@yahoo.com.