Rick Sofield, former partner at Vinson & Elkins, joined Debevoise & Plimpton as co-head of the national security practice based in Washington, D.C., the firm announced. Sofield will center his practice on security reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and other cross-border transactions and investments. Sofield previously was director of the Foreign Investment Review Staff for DOJ's National Security Division.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., said Jan. 26 that he will approve granting the request from Turkey to the U.S. for the purchase of F-16 fighter jets, following that country’s approval of Sweden’s accession to NATO.
Several lawmakers urged the Biden administration to reimpose sanctions on Venezuela after the country’s supreme court barred opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from this year’s presidential election.
Sens. Mike Braun, R-Ind., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., on Jan. 25 introduced a bill aimed at improving the tracking of foreign investment in U.S. farmland.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has been experiencing delays in semiconductor-related export license applications due to a higher number of disagreements with the other agencies that also review those licenses, a senior BIS official said this week.
Japan, which suffered economic coercion from China earlier than any other country, is largely on the same page as the U.S. when it comes to supply chain resilience and restrictions on exports, but the two diverge in their attitudes about China's role in the global economy.
Senate Finance Committee ranking member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, along with six Democrats, six Republicans and independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, urged the administration to come out against a proposal at the World Trade Organization to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics. There already is an IP waiver for vaccines against the disease. The waivers, which loosen the Trade-Related Aspects of IP Rights, or TRIPS, in the body, "could have unintended consequences for the development of new treatments for dangerous diseases, while doing little to improve access to medicine," they argued.
Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, urged the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to investigate the proposed sale of Vista Outdoor’s Sporting Products business to Czechoslovak Group (CSG), saying the transaction could endanger national security by transferring an American manufacturer of firearms ammunition to a “Kremlin-linked” foreign company.
Companies should expect the Bureau of Industry and Security to announce new export controls this year restricting certain U.S. person activities involving military and military intelligence end uses and end users, a former BIS official said.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Jan. 24 approved a bill that would authorize the government to seize about $5 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets in the U.S. to help pay for rebuilding Ukraine.