Photo of Robert L. LaFrankie

Robert L. LaFrankie is a partner in Crowell & Moring's International Trade Group and resident in the firm's Washington, D.C. office. Bob regularly advises manufacturers, exporters, and importers in all aspects of international trade and customs proceedings before various government agencies, courts, and international tribunals. He focuses on trade-related litigation and counseling, including trade remedy proceedings and U.S. Customs compliance and enforcement issues. Bob has successfully defended numerous clients located throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas that produce or import a diverse range of products, including flat-rolled and specialty steel products and components, chemicals and plastics, frozen and canned food products, paper products, motor vehicle parts and components, specialty valves and valve systems, disposable lighters, petrochemical and renewable fuels, anti-friction bearings, and other manufactured products. In addition to litigation and compliance counseling, Bob engages in strategic trade remedy and customs planning activities for clients, particularly for companies with global sourcing, manufacturing, and export/import operations. He also advises companies with regard to NAFTA compliance issues and related audits of client facilities.

On March 19, Commerce published a Federal Register Notice which detailed the procedure to request product exclusions from the new imported steel and aluminum tariffs.

In addition, the agency established two web pages and accompanying exclusion request forms, one each for steel and aluminum, explaining the process, how to file exclusion requests, the detailed

The European Commission released a list of U.S. products on Friday, March 16, that could be subject to tariffs if the President does not exclude the EU from the Section 232 tariffs. The list was released a week after President Trump signed the proclamations to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a

The president’s decision last week to impose a 25 percent global tariff on certain steel imports, and a 10 percent global tariff on certain aluminum imports, includes the following products:

Aluminum products within the scope of the global tariffs:

  • Primary unwrought aluminum, not alloyed – 7601.10
  • Primary unwrought aluminum, alloyed – 7601.20
  • Semi-finished aluminum bars,

On March 8, President Trump officially signed proclamations imposing a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum pursuant to Section 232(b) of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.

The signing of the proclamations came exactly one week after the president abruptly announced his decision to impose the global

On March 1, President Trump abruptly announced his decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The day started with conflicting news reports as to whether the president would announce his decision to impose tariffs, followed by the spontaneous announcement by President Trump

President Trump announced plans to approve tariffs on both steel and aluminum products pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. According to his meeting earlier today with top steel and aluminum executives, the U.S. will impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum for

On February 16, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross released the findings of the Department of Commerce (Commerce) investigations on the effects of steel and aluminum imports on U.S. national security pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.

Commerce concluded the present quantities of steel imports are “weakening [the U.S.] internal

Ur-Energy and Energy Fuels Resources signed a joint petition on January 16 regarding imports of uranium from state-owned and state-subsidized companies primarily in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and possibly China. The petitioners claim that “[the United States] cannot afford to depend on foreign sources – particularly Russia, and those in its sphere of influence, and China

The Department of Commerce submitted its report on the impact of steel mill product imports on U.S. national security to President Trump on January 11.

In a statement on its website, the Department announced that the long-awaited results of the investigation, commonly known as the Section 232 Report, will not be made public until

In May and June, the U.S. Department of Commerce held hearings and accepted hundreds of public comments for its investigations under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to determine whether U.S. imports of steel and aluminum threaten national security.

DOC missed its self-imposed deadline of June 30 to release its reports and