Customs & Import Compliance Blog

In this installment of Five Questions, Five Answers, Birgit Matthiesen is joined by Dr. Austin Brown, the Office Director at the US Department of Energy (DOE) Vehicle Technologies Office.

In the latest installment of Five Questions, Five Answers, Birgit Matthiesen is joined by Leah Scarpelli, a Partner with the firm’s International Trade & Investment Practice.

The Electric Mobility industry is on track for another exciting year. However, current and forthcoming US agency regulations continue to inject confusion and costs in critical supply decisions, for which legal tools can provide near- and long-term solutions.

Aluminum is clearly an important material for the industry as there is an objective for making vehicles as light as possible. Aluminum issues may start with Tariff Classification and Country of Origin questions, and can lead to more complex issues, including Section 232 tariffs or other high-tariff trade barriers.

Critical minerals — the lithium, graphite, cobalt, manganese, and other key minerals that are later processed into battery-grade chemicals — represent the essential ingredients in any electric vehicle (EV) battery.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), in many ways, can be a game changer for many automotive companies. First and foremost, eligibility of products deemed USMCA compliant benefit from zero US import tariffs.

For readers who may not be fully apprised of what these tariffs are, we offer a short summary.

We chose to include a discussion of this important but lesser understood policy area because of the likelihood of their impact — both adverse and positive — on many companies’ procurement and production plans.

Recent government actions illustrate that US-China trade relations will continue to be a focus as the United States enters an election year.