This blog post summarizes trade regulatory developments which occurred during the week of April 12-18, 2025. It is current up to 12:00 pm ET on Friday, April 18, 2025. Any developments occurring after that time will be covered in next week’s update. Please continue to check Husch Blackwell’s First 100 Days of Trade series for future trade regulatory updates occurring during the first 100 days’ of President Trump’s return to office.
Initiation of New Section 232 Investigation of Critical Mineral and Rare Earth Element Imports
On Monday, April 14, President Trump directed the Secretary of Commerce to initiate a Section 232 Investigation to determine whether imports of critical minerals, rare earth elements and their derivative products threaten U.S. national security. This directive was formally published as an Executive Order on Tuesday, April 15. The directive requires the Secretary of Commerce to submit a draft interim report within 90 days of the Executive Order and to submit a final report to the President (which shall include recommendations) within 180 days. We covered this announcement in more detail in this blog post.
Trump Administration Seeks Public Comments Under Ongoing Section 232 Investigations on Pharmaceuticals and Semiconductors
On Wednesday, April 16, 2025, the Department of Commerce published Federal Register notices seeking public comments under ongoing Section 232 investigations of pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. The Trump Administration initiated those investigations on April 1, 2025, to determine whether imports of those products threaten U.S. national security. The Federal Register notice seeking comments for the pharmaceuticals investigation is available here and the Federal Register notice seeking comments for the semiconductor investigation is available here. Comments under each solicitation must be received by the Department of Commerce by May 7, 2025. We covered these actions in more detail in this blog post.
Export Restrictions Imposed on NVIDIA Corporation’s H20 Integrated Circuits
On Tuesday, April 15, NVIDIA Corporation (“NVIDIA”) filed a Form 8-K current events report with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission to make its shareholders aware of communications NVIDIA Corporation received from the U.S. government on April 9, 2025 stating that NVIDIA’s H20 integrated circuits and “any other circuits achieving the H20’s memory bandwidth, interconnect bandwidth, or combination thereof” are prohibited for export to China (including Hong Kong and Macau) and other D:5 countries without licensing from the U.S. government. The Form 8-K also disclosed subsequent statements made by the U.S. government to NVIDIA on April 14, 2025 informing NVIDIA “that the license requirement will be in effect for the indefinite future”.
NVIDIA announced that this development would result in charges of approximately $5.5 billion to its first quarter results. NVIDIA had designed the H20 in order to comply with existing export controls imposed under the US Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”), but this action appears to be the result of the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) exercising its power under EAR § 744.23(b) and making a special determination that the H20 integrated circuits present an unacceptable risk of use in or diversion to prohibited end uses involving supercomputer development or production in China.
State of California Takes Legal Action Challenging IEEPA Tariffs
On Wednesday, April 16th, the State of California filed a complaint in the District Court for the Northern District of California challenging the legality of tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration using claimed authority under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (“IEEPA”). The lawsuit alleges that IEEPA does not grant the President authority to unilaterally issue tariffs and seeks an injunction to enjoin the Trump Administration from enforcing many of the tariffs which it has imposed since President Trump’s return to office. We covered this lawsuit in more detail in this blog post.
U.S. Trade Representative Announces New Fees on Chinese Vessel Owners, Operators and Vessels
On Thursday, April 17th, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) announced new service fees to be assessed against Chinese vessel owners and operators and operators of Chinese-built ships. The USTR announced these fees in connection with its year-long Section 301 investigation of China’s acts, policies and practices targeting the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors. The fees will be set at $0 for a period of 180 days and then will increase incrementally over the following years based on net tonnage and container totals. The USTR’s ability to enforce these fees under the Administrative Procedures Act is subject to current ongoing litigation. This is a developing story and the Husch Blackwell’s International Trade and Supply Chain Team is still reviewing the specifics of how these fees will be calculated and collected.
Week Thirteen Sanctions Designations
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) added several persons and entities to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (“SDN List”) during Week Thirteen of President Trump’s return to office:
- On Tuesday, April 15, OFAC added several members of Mexico’s La Nueva Familia Michoacana Drug Cartel to the SDN List (see OFAC press releases here and here);
- On Wednesday, April 16, OFAC added the Shandong Shengxing Chemical Co., Ltd. “teapot” refinery and several vessels, vessel owners and vessel owners to the SDN List for their roles in refining and transporting Iranian-origin crude oil (see OFAC press release here) ; and
- On Thursday, April 17, OFAC added the International Bank of Yemen Y.S.C. and its Chairman, Executive General Manager and Deputy General Manager to the SDN List for their roles in providing financial support to the Houthi terrorist network (see OFAC press release here).
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