Antitrust Lawyer Blog

President Trump announced an agreement to remove the tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico as part of the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”).  The current tariffs included a 25 percent rate on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports. In response to the United States’ steel and…

Last week, the Trump Administration raised tariffs to 25% on $200 billion worth of goods that previously were subject to 10% tariffs.  The increased rate in tariffs were brought on as a result of accusations that the Chinese delegation to the trade negotiations back-tracked on previous agreements, and the increase was meant to ratchet up…

The last few weeks brought a flurry of developments regarding international trade.  Two petitions recently were filed with the US International Trade Commission (“ITC”). On April 30th, Hirsh Industries filed an antidumping (“AD”) and countervailing duty (“CVD”) petition on imports of certain vertical metal file cabinets from China.  The petition covers metal filing cabinets containing…

When USTR announced tariffs on imports from China on July 6, 2018, it also announced the procedures and deadlines for seeking exclusions from such duties. Late last month, USTR announced that it would grant exclusions from tariffs for a second set of Chinese imports (“List 2”).  The second round of exclusions cover about 87 separate…

A lawsuit commenced by the American Institute for International Steel (“AIIS”) regarding the constitutionality of Section 232 before the Court of International Trade (“CIT”) has been decided.  A three-judge panel decided that Section 232 was not unconstitutional. The plaintiffs argued that Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended, did not properly…

In February 2019, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division required divestitures from Thales in order for the company to proceed with its proposed $5.64 billion acquisition of Gemalto. Why This Merger Mattered Prior to the transaction, Thales and Gemalto were the world’s leading providers of General Purpose Hardware Security Modules (GP HSMs). These devices are…

On March 22, 2019, Judge John Michael Vazquez of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey granted Allergan’s motion to dismiss Shire’s antitrust complaint that Allergan monopolized the Medicare Part D dry eye disease (“DED”) treatment market through its contracting practices with insurers including rebates based on a bundled portfolio of…

The rising prices of existing and new brand prescription drugs could have serious consequences for tax payers and the 44 million seniors who rely on Medicare.  In order to rein in those costs, it’s vital for the Administration to encourage the use of generic drugs and biosimilars. While Congress has been grabbing the headlines by…

On February 4, 2019, the American Institute of Steel Construction, LLC filed antidumping (“AD”) and countervailing (“CVD”) petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce (“DOC”) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”). Under U.S. law, a domestic industry can petition the government to initiate an AD investigation into the pricing of an imported product to…

Senate Democrats Aim at Strengthening Antitrust Enforcement On Friday, February 1, Senator Amy Klobuchar re-introduced two bills aimed at strengthening antitrust enforcement. The co-sponsors include Senators Ed Markey (Dem-Massachusetts), Richard Blumenthal (Dem-Connecticut), Dick Durbin (Dem-Illinois) and Corey Booker (Dem-New Jersey). The Consolidation Prevention and Competition Promotion Act of 2019 would, among many other things, include…