The Biden administration’s road to implement regulations for its outbound investment executive order will be “incredibly complex,” particularly if agencies disagree on how narrow or broad to scope the restrictions,Thomas Feddo, a former Treasury Department official, said during a webinar this week. Lawyers on the webinar said investors are “very concerned” about the rules having a potential “chilling” effect on a broad range of investments, especially if the government fails to adequately define a range of key terms in the executive order.
The Treasury Department is putting eight more military bases under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. after proposing the additions in May (see 2305040052). The expansion, effective Sept. 22, includes the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota that was the subject of a controversial CFIUS decision last year (see 2212150035, 2212290023 and 2208310066) as well as bases in Texas, California, South Dakota, Iowa and Arizona. CFIUS will be able to intervene in certain land purchases by foreign buyers if they are near any of those sensitive military bases.
The U.S. and Europe should create a shared list of companies subject to investment restrictions, which would help both sides better harmonize their inbound and outbound screening rules and create a “level playing field” for investors, said Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a China studies fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She also said the two sides could create a shared “white list” of foreign investors that would be exempt from the restrictions, streamlining filings before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and reviews conducted by EU member states.
The Commerce Department is giving a selection committee more time to choose the board members for a National Semiconductor Technology Center (see 2304250032), a key piece of the Chips Act designed to bring together the government, national labs, chip companies, suppliers, academia, investors and others to collaborate on semiconductor matters. Commerce announced members of the selection committee in June and planned for the committee to “automatically terminate” by Aug. 31, but the agency said this week the committee “would benefit from additional time to complete this important task.” The termination date will now be Sept. 30.
Canada announced another set of Russia sanctions last week, designating 15 people and three judicial courts for human rights violations. The designations target senior officials of the Russian government, the judiciary committee, an investigative committee and federally funded courts, including the “notorious” Basmanny District Court. The court has been “directly involved” in human rights abuses against Russian political figures who oppose the government, including Vladimir Kara-Murza and Alexei Navalny, Canada said.
Republicans last week urged the Biden administration against meeting with Beijing to discuss semiconductor export controls, saying the U.S. should not negotiate its policies with China and should instead enact tougher restrictions. They specifically asked Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who is considering a trip to China, to pledge that the U.S. plans to increase its export restrictions against the country.
The U.S. has initiated the formation of a dispute settlement panel over Mexico's decree to not allow biotech corn for tortillas and directive to the administration to gradually substitute genetically modified corn in processed foods and in animal feed.
A new House bill would require the U.S. to maintain certain sanctions against Iraq even if the administration ends the “applicable declared national emergency” that authorizes those sanctions. The legislation was introduced Aug. 11 by Rep. Elijah Crane, R-Ariz., and referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
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Hong Kong-based apparel company Chagji Esquel Textile (CJE) and the Commerce Department filed a joint stipulation of dismissal on Aug. 11 in CJE's suit challenging its placement on the Entity List. The parties most recently filed a joint status report in June as they discussed the conditions related to the End-User Review Committee's July 2021 decision to drop the company from the Entity List (Changji Esquel Textile Co. v. Gina M. Raimondo, D.D.C. # 21-01798).