Stacy Hernandez, a former international trade specialist at the Commerce Department, was “let go” from her position March 3 amid the Trump administration's sweeping cuts of employees who are still on probationary status. March 4 would have been her first day off probation, she said on LinkedIn. She joined ITA last year after working in the Bureau of Industry and Security's Office of Technology Evaluation.
Matthew Axelrod, the Bureau of Industry and Security's former export enforcement chief, has joined Gibson Dunn to help lead the firm's new sanctions and export enforcement practice group. Axelrod and former Treasury Department senior adviser Adam Smith will co-chair the new group, which they said will aim to help clients navigate rising export control and sanctions risks.
President Donald Trump's recent expansion of Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs likely would survive a judicial challenge, particularly in light of the string of cases challenging the Section 232 duties imposed during his first term, trade lawyers told us. Thomas Beline, partner at Cassidy Levy, said Trump's move to eliminate the country-specific arrangements and product exclusions is "likely defensible," since the statute lets the president take any action he deems necessary where an agreement is "not being carried out or is ineffective."
Howard Lutnick, whose nomination advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee Feb. 2 with a 16-12 vote, told senators from both parties that, despite the president's announcements that he would have "direct responsibilities over the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative," the scope of responsibilities for the USTR won't change, and his agency will coordinate with others working on trade policy.
Commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick vigorously defended the prospect of imposing tariffs on all goods from places like the EU, Japan or South Korea during his confirmation hearing Jan. 29, saying those countries deserve it, as they either use food safety rules to protect their farmers, put up barriers to American car imports, or undercut American manufacturing with their exports of manufactured goods.
Philip Luck is leaving his role as the State Department’s deputy chief economist to become the new Scholl Chair in International Business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the think tank announced this week. Luck will focus on “issues at the intersection of economics and national security planning,” CSIS said, including U.S. technology competition and supply chain resilience. He will replace outgoing chair Bill Reinsch, a former Bureau of Industry and Security official during the Bill Clinton administration, who will continue to do research at CSIS.
Auto sector manufacturers and importers will have 425 days to cut Chinese software that enables automated driving systems or enables a vehicle to connect to the outside world at a frequency above 450 MHz from their supply chains, according to a final rule from the Bureau of Industry and Security set to be published Jan. 16.
BIS has completed a round of interagency review for a rule that would finalize its proposed import restrictions on connected vehicles from China (see 2412190021, 2409220001 and 2410290026). The agency sent the final rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Dec. 17 and completed the review Jan. 7.
China’s Foreign Ministry objected to a recent Bureau of Industry and Security rule that requested public comments on possible import restrictions for Chinese-made drones (see 2501020037), saying any new measures could further disrupt the two countries’ trade relations.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is asking for public comments about how BIS regulations on Chinese-made drones, or Chinese components in drones made elsewhere, should be focused, to mitigate the risk of Chinese sabotage or espionage.