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Thompson Hine LLP, a full-service business law firm with approximately 400 lawyers in 11 offices, was ranked number 1 in the category “Most innovative North American law firms: New working models” by The Financial Times and was 1 of 7 firms shortlisted for The American Lawyer’s inaugural Legal Services Innovation Award. The firm has been recognized by the National Law Journal as a Legal Technology Trailblazer and featured by Bloomberg for its innovative service delivery models, which drive accuracy and predictability. The firm’s commitment to innovation is embodied in Thompson Hine SmartPaTHTM – a smarter way to work – predictable, efficient and aligned with client goals. For more information, please visit ThompsonHine.com and ThompsonHine.com/SmartPaTH.

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With the 35-day partial federal government shutdown ending on January 26, 2019, the U.S. government&rsquo;s trade-oriented agencies have reopened and are beginning to work through massive backlogs of work as personnel resume full-time operations. What follows is a listing of the current operational status of many of these agencies:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
While CBP staffed ports &ldquo;as normal&rdquo; during the shutdown to ensure that the &ldquo;flow of trade {is} as close to normal as possible,&rdquo; other functions were curtailed. Due to the lapse in federal funding, however, the CBP website and certain databases were not actively managed. While no formal announcement has been made by CBP, these resources are once again fully operational, including the Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) and the AD/CVD search database.
U.S. Department of Commerce &ndash; Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)
No official statement has been issued by BIS officials, but the Department of Commerce is once again fully operational. While export enforcement continued during the shutdown, other functions of BIS were severely curtailed, including the filing of export license applications. SNAP-R (BIS&rsquo;s electronic filing system) is back up and accepting licensing applications; however, it is expected that the review-and-approval process for applications will be delayed due to the expected high volume of filings BIS expects to receive.
U.S. Department of Commerce &ndash; International Trade Administration (ITA)
ITA is once again fully operational and has issued a <a href="https://access.trade.gov/help/Tolling%202019.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">memorandum</a> stating that &ldquo;any delay and confusion caused by the closure of the Federal Government will best be minimized by uniformly tolling all Enforcement and Compliance deadlines for the effective duration of the recent closure (i.e., 40 days), with the exception of requests for administrative reviews of suspension agreements and antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders.&rdquo; ITA has indicated that this determination applies to every proceeding, with the exception of court-ordered redeterminations. For AD and CVD orders and suspension agreements with December and January anniversary months, all requests for administrative reviews are now due by February 28, 2019.
U.S. Department of State &ndash; Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC)
DDTC has posted a notice on its website stating that it &ldquo;has returned to full operational status with all electronic application systems placed in normal operational mode and the 3pm daily pick-up and drop-off service restored.&rdquo; In resuming full operations, the agency notes that &ldquo;Priority will be placed on issuance of licenses in the system at the time of implementation of lapse of funding operations on December 22, 2018. New licenses will be accepted; however, industry is advised of the likelihood of longer than normal processing times due to the high volume of licenses DDTC expects to receive.&rdquo;
U.S. Department of the Treasury &ndash; Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
As previously reported, Treasury continued to have critical staff reporting to work to maintain core operations, even though OFAC&rsquo;s operations were significantly curtailed. OFAC is again fully functional, and its sanctions web pages and licensing portal are operating.
U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC)
The ITC has publicly stated that all investigations that were active and ongoing when the shutdown began will be tolled by 35 days; a formal notice soon to be published in the Federal Register will provide more detailed information. The ITC website notes that &ldquo;specific schedules for each investigative proceeding, including those pending before an Administrative Law Judge, will be revised and new schedules posted. We hope in a week or more for revised schedules to be finalized.&rdquo; The ITC website is once again fully operational, and EDIS (the ITC&rsquo;s electronic filing system) was live and accepting filings as of January 30. The HTS Search Tool and Dataweb are once again fully operating.
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)
USTR has announced that it has returned to &ldquo;full operating status.&rdquo; Bilateral trade negotiations continued during the shutdown, particularly those between the United States and China, which face a March 1 deadline before U.S. retaliatory tariffs increase on certain imports of certain Chinese products on March 2 from 10 percent to 25 percent; however, no notice has been provided regarding how the lengthy shutdown will affect the processing of Section 301 product exclusion requests.

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SmarTrade

Trade-Related Agencies Reopen, and Many Toll Deadlines from Government Shutdown