The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned five entities and 19 individuals it has identified as engaging in Russian cyber activity, including “attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure,” according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The Treasury Department indicated that these sanctions were in response to interference in the 2016 U.S. election and the execution of destructive cyber-attacks, including the NotPetya attack attributed to the Russian military that is believed to be the most destructive and costly attack in history. The sanctions are also in response to continuing efforts by Russian government cyber actors who have targeted U.S. government entities and multiple critical U.S. infrastructure sectors, including energy, nuclear and commercial facilities and the water, aviation and critical manufacturing sectors. The White House also joined France, Germany and the United Kingdom in condemning the recent use of a military-grade nerve agent in an attempt to murder two UK citizens and noted that this incident further demonstrates the reckless and irresponsible conduct of the Russian government.

The sanctions are being implemented pursuant to Executive Order 13694, which targets malicious cyber actors, and under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). Particularly, the sanctions include the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a Russian military intelligence organization, which have both been key actors in Russia’s ongoing efforts to undermine cybersecurity. As a result of these designations, all property and interests in property of the designated entities/persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

President Trump has signed two proclamations imposing 25 percent tariffs on imports of steel mill products and 10 percent tariffs on wrought and unwrought aluminum pursuant to his announcement on March 1, 2018. The president stated that these actions were necessary to address global overcapacity and unfair trade practices in the steel and aluminum industries and to protect national security. As past Trump and Trade updates have indicated, these tariffs are being implemented pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which provides the president with authority to adjust imports entering the United States in quantities or under circumstances that threaten to impair national security. The tariffs are scheduled to be implemented 15 days from today, on March 23, 2018.

Pursuant to the proclamation on steel, “steel articles” for which tariffs will be levied are defined at the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) six‑digit level as: 7206.10 through 7216.50; 7216.99 through 7301.10; 7302.10; 7302.40 through 7302.90; and 7304.10 through 7306.90, including any subsequent revisions to these HTS classifications.

Pursuant to the proclamation on aluminum, “aluminum articles” are defined in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule as: (a) unwrought aluminum (HTS 7601); (b) aluminum bars, rods and profiles (HTS 7604); (c) aluminum wire (HTS 7605); (d) aluminum plate, sheet, strip and foil (flat rolled products) (HTS 7606 and 7607); (e) aluminum tubes and pipes and tube and pipe fitting (HTS 7608 and 7609); and (f) aluminum castings and forgings (HTS 7616.99.51.60 and 7616.99.51.70), including any subsequent revisions to these HTS classifications.

After insisting last week that the tariffs would cover steel and aluminum imports from all countries, President Trump scaled back that threat in the actual proclamations. Citing the need for “flexibility” and “cooperation” with allies and those who “treat us fairly on both trade and the military,” the president offered some restraint in implementing the tariffs. President Trump recognized that Canada and Mexico present a “special case” and will be excluded for now from the tariffs, indicating that his administration will continue ongoing discussions with those countries to address concerns (i.e., NAFTA negotiations). The president stated that he “welcomes any country with which we have a security relationship to discuss alternative ways to address our concerns, including our concerns about global excess capacity.” His administration will provide appropriate avenues, via negotiations with the U.S. Trade Representative, for potentially modifying or removing a tariff under certain conditions for individual countries.

The White House also announced that there will be a mechanism, via the Department of Commerce, for U.S. parties to apply for exclusion of specific products based on demand that is unmet by domestic production or on specific national security considerations. The proclamations make clear that such relief will be provided only after a request for exclusion is made “by a directly affected party located in the United States.” Exclusion request procedures are scheduled to be issued by March 18, 2018.

In the category of “we can’t make this stuff up,” there reportedly has been in the past 24 hours an all-out war within the Trump administration over any tariffs to be implemented as a result of the Section 232 investigations into steel and aluminum imports. On February 16, the Department of Commerce publicly released reports on the national security impact of U.S. imports of steel mill products and of wrought and unwrought aluminum, finding that these imports threaten to impair the national security and recommending a range of remedy options, including tariffs and quotas. In the weeks since, U.S. industry and members of Congress have weighed in on the potential impact of these prospective tariffs and quotas on the U.S. economy, taxpayers and other industries reliant upon steel and aluminum imports, and the potential negative impact of tariffs and quotas on key U.S. allies.

A press announcement was initially planned for today, March 1, to announce the president’s decision, then it was postponed, then it was ostensibly cancelled. The scheduling problems appeared to be related to reports that National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro were seeking vastly different remedies. Cohn reportedly wanted a more targeted approach to applying any tariffs, while Navarro was pushing for global tariffs at rates higher than recommended in Commerce’s reports. Chief of Staff John Kelly, Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster had also sought a more nuanced response. When the White House announced instead that a meeting today with steel and aluminum industry executives would take place, it was expected to be nothing more than a “listening session” for the president.

And, it was … right up until the end of the session. After receiving comments from industry executives and repeatedly mentioning bad trade deals that have destroyed U.S. companies, the president said, “We’re going to take care of the situation, okay? So steel and aluminum will see a lot of good things happen. We’re going to have new jobs popping up. We’re going to have much more vibrant companies.” And then, in response to a question from the White House press pool, the president announced ­– likely to the surprise of his staff and everyone in the room – that he intended to implement tariffs for an unlimited time period of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports, stating that “it’s [the policy is] being written now.”

A transcript of the “listening session” is available here. By the end of the trading day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen almost 2 percent; however, U.S. steel and aluminum companies saw gains. China and the European Union have already announced they will retaliate, either through their own measures or through remedies obtained in the WTO dispute settlement process. Stay tuned!

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has released the Trump administration’s Trade Policy Agenda and Annual Report detailing how the administration “is promoting free, fair, and reciprocal trade and strongly enforcing U.S. trade laws.” USTR Robert Lighthizer, in releasing the report, stated that, “President Trump has launched a new era in American trade policy. His agenda is driven by a pragmatic determination to use the leverage available to the world’s largest economy to obtain fairer treatment for American workers.”

The policy rests on these five major pillars:

  • Adopting Trade Policies that Support Our National Security
  • Strengthening the U.S. Economy
  • Negotiating Better Trade Deals
  • Aggressively Enforcing U.S. Trade Laws and U.S. Rights under Existing Agreements
  • Reforming the Multilateral Trading System

The report adheres closely to past statements and well-known positions of President Trump’s trade team. According to Lighthizer, “President Trump is keeping his promises to the American people on trade, from withdrawing the United States from the flawed Trans-Pacific Partnership, to renegotiating NAFTA, to strongly enforcing U.S. trade laws. We are already seeing the results of President Trump’s agenda pay off for American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses.”

Of note in this voluminous report are these planned policy actions and activities:

  • Trade Agreements – The United States will continue to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and amend the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. The Trump administration will prepare for a potential bilateral agreement with the United Kingdom once the UK leaves the European Union. It will also pursue other bilateral agreements in the Indo-Pacific and African regions. The administration’s primary goals in NAFTA negotiations are to modernize provisions and to rebalance NAFTA for fair, reciprocal trade. The goals for KORUS are also to establish a more balanced trade relationship and to eliminate non-tariff barriers to exports of U.S.-made motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts.
  • Enforcing/Defending U.S. Trade Laws – The report states that the Trump administration will continue to “use all tools available” to combat unfair trade, and that there are “no successful trade agreements without enforcement.” The report highlights, but provides little new information or insight into, many of the trade actions undertaken in 2017 (i.e., trade actions under Sections 201, 232 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974) and ongoing antidumping and countervailing duty investigations.
  • China – Several sections of the report discuss China and state that the scope of its economy means that “its economic practices increasingly affect the United States and the overall global economic and trade system.” It notes, however, that despite China’s WTO membership, the country is “moving further away from market principles” and as a result the United States “will resist efforts by China – or any other country – to hide behind international bureaucracies in an effort to hinder the ability of the United States to take robust actions, when necessary, in response to unfair trade practices abroad.”
  • World Trade Organization – The administration will work with all WTO members “who share the U.S. goal of using the organization to create rules that will lead to more efficient markets, more trade and greater wealth for our citizens.” However, the report notes that the United States is “concerned that the WTO is not operating as the contracting parties envisioned and, as a result, is undermining America’s ability to act in its national interest.”

A fact sheet on the report can be viewed here. Congress requires the USTR to submit the President’s Trade Policy Agenda and Annual Report by March 1 each year.

In wide-ranging remarks during a business session with U.S. governors, President Trump yesterday repeatedly broached the topic of international trade. The president reiterated his commitment to working on fair and reciprocal trade deals and highlighted specific trade issues:

  • Mexico – “You know, with Mexico … we probably lose $130 billion a year…. And, at some point, we have to get stronger and smarter, because we cannot continue to lose that kind of money with one country.”
  • Canada – “We lose a lot with Canada. People don’t know it. Canada is very smooth. They have you believe that it’s wonderful. And it is — for them…. So we have to start showing that we know what we’re doing.”
  • WTO – “World Trade Organization – a catastrophe…. makes it almost impossible for us to do good business. We lose the cases, we don’t have the judges. We have a minority of judges.”
  • China – “[W]e probably lost $504 billion, last year, on trade…. Other Presidents should have solved this problem long before I got here. And they’ve been talking for 25 years. And you know what happened? Nothing.”
  • Steel – “I want to bring the steel industry back into our country. If that takes tariffs, let them take tariffs, okay? Maybe it will cost a little bit more, but we’ll have jobs. Let it take tariffs.”
  • Aluminum – “I want to bring aluminum back into our country. These plants are all closing or closed.”
  • Section 232 Trade Actions – “Recently, we put a tariff on washing machines because we were getting killed ….. That was two months ago. You have to see the activity on new plants being built for washing machines and for solar panels. We had 32 solar-panel plants. Of the 32, 30 were closed, and 2 were on life-to-life resuscitation. They were dead. Now they’re talking about opening up many of them — reopening plants that have been closed for a long time.”

In closing comments on trade, President Trump stated that “we’re going to straighten it out. We’ve already started. I mean, the first year is just — we laid the seeds.”

In an undated memo from the Department of Defense (DoD) to the Department of Commerce that was released last night, DoD concurred with Commerce’s recent Section 232 reports on steel and aluminum that have been submitted to President Trump for review. DoD agreed that “imports of foreign steel and aluminum based on unfair trading practices impair the national security” but noted that U.S. military requirements for steel and aluminum only represent approximately 3 percent of U.S. production and would not impact DoD’s ability to acquire necessary product to meet national defense demands.

Overall, DoD focused on the potential “negative impact” of Commerce’s recommendations (i.e., tariffs and quotas) on key allies. DoD recommended that an inter-agency working group be convened to “further refine the targeted tariffs, so as to create incentives for trade partners to work with the U.S. on addressing the underlying issue of Chinese transshipment.” If the president takes action on steel, DoD suggested “waiting before taking further steps on aluminum.” The delayed action on aluminum “may be sufficient to coerce improved behavior of bad actors.” DoD emphasized that the United States needed to “reinforce to our key allies that these actions are focused on correcting Chinese overproduction and countering their attempts to circumvent existing antidumping tariffs – not the bilateral U.S. relationship.”

Twenty-five Republican senators authored a letter to President Trump encouraging his administration to re-engage in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement discussions, which he abandoned shortly after taking office in January 2017. Despite the withdrawal of the United States from TPP negotiations, the remaining 11 countries continued negotiating the newly approved Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which is scheduled to be signed by its member countries March 8. This prompted a recent statement by President Trump that he may be interested in the multilateral deal if it could be made “substantially better.”

The senators urged the president to prioritize TPP engagement since increased economic engagement with the involved countries “has the potential to substantially improve the competitiveness of U.S. businesses, support millions of U.S. jobs, increase U.S. exports, increase wages, fully unleash America’s energy potential, and benefit consumers.” In addition, the letter highlights the senators’ belief that re-engaging in TPP discussions can serve as a counter-balance to China’s influence in the region and as another platform to address and modernize trade with Canada and Mexico, which are parties to the CPTPP.

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has sanctioned 21 entities determined by the U.S. government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. BIS has taken this action to ensure the efficacy of existing sanctions on the Russian Federation (Russia) for violating international law and fueling the conflict in eastern Ukraine. These entities have been placed on the BIS Entity List, which identifies entities and other persons that are subject to specific license requirements for the export, reexport and/or transfer (in-country) of specified items. Engaging in transactions with any of these entities now entails additional export licensing requirements and approval from BIS. The license review policy for each listed entity is identified in the License Review Policy column on the Entity List.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross released today the Section 232 reports prepared by the Commerce Department and submitted to President Trump last month on the national security impact of U.S. imports of steel mill products and of wrought and unwrought aluminum. As expected, Commerce found that the quantities and circumstances of steel and aluminum imports “threaten to impair the national security.” The reports remain under consideration by the president. He is required to make a decision on the steel recommendations by April 11, 2018, and on the aluminum recommendations by April 19, 2018. The president can take a range of actions or no action, based on the analyses and recommendations provided in these reports. Continue Reading Commerce Releases Section 232 Steel and Aluminum Reports Submitted to President Trump Last Month

President Trump and several Cabinet members hosted a meeting with congressional Republicans and Democrats on February 13, 2018 at the White House to discuss possible trade remedies in the Section 232 steel and aluminum investigations. The purpose of a Section 232 investigation is to determine the effect of imports on the national security of the United States, and the president stated that his administration is reviewing the final Department of Commerce reports submitted last month and considering all options. He told those attending that quotas and tariffs are options on the table.

In opening the discussions, President Trump stated that while he wants to keep prices down, he also wishes to “make sure that we have a steel industry and aluminum industry, and we do need that for national defense. If we ever have a conflict, we don’t want to be buying the steel from a country that we’re fighting because somehow that doesn’t work very well.” Several senators urged caution, however, including Senator Roy Blunt, who said, “we do need to be careful here that we don’t start a reciprocal battle on tariffs” because the United States not only makes aluminum and steel but also must buy and import these products to satisfy domestic demand. Others cautioned President Trump on the issue of jobs, noting that with so many items manufactured in the United States using steel and aluminum, import tariffs could actually result in a net job loss. In response, the president stated, “In one case, you’re going to create jobs. You may have a higher price or maybe a little bit higher, but you’re going to have jobs. In the other case, you may have a lower price, but you’re not going have jobs; it’s going to be made in China and other places.”

Senator Pat Toomey cautioned the president to proceed cautiously under Section 232 for national security reasons, arguing that U.S. defense needs account for only about 3 percent of domestic steel consumption. “So I think it’s implausible to believe that we’re not able to meet the needs of our defense industry,” he said, indicating that invoking national security concerns could be difficult to support and invite retaliation. Others urged caution in the scope of any enforcement action resulting from the investigations. Commerce Secretary Ross noted that Section 232 remedies do not require “the same tariff on every single country. It doesn’t have to mean the same tariff on every single product. It can be applied in a much more surgical way. And we presented the President with a range of alternatives that goes from a big tariff on everything from everywhere, to very selective tariffs from a very selective group of countries.”

The meeting also included brief comments by multiple participants on other trade matters, including South Korea (the KORUS FTA is a “very bad trade deal”), China (is “violating the international rules, stealing our intellectual property, overproducing steel products”), Canada (has “treated us very, very unfairly when it comes to lumber and timber”), and NAFTA (the renegotiations are “making real headway” but still working through a number of issues).

A full transcript of the meeting is available on the White House website: Remarks by President Trump, Members of Congress, and Members of the Cabinet in Meeting on Trade.