Lawyer David Hanke left Arent Fox to become staff director for the new House Select Committee on China (see 2301100079], he announced on LinkedIn this week. At Arent Fox, Hanke advised clients on navigating the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and international trade issues.
Congress should “pressure” the Biden administration to pursue free trade deals with the U.K., Kenya, Taiwan and others if it wants to convince U.S. allies to move supply chains out of China, said Clete Willems, a former National Security Council official. Willems, speaking during a House Financial Services Committee hearing this week, also called on the administration to join and renegotiate the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, arguing the U.S. needs to match China’s “aggressive pursuit” of trade deals, specifically mentioning the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
Several former U.S. officials urged lawmakers this week to improve U.S. investment controls, including former National Security Council official Peter Harrell, who said Congress should further bolster the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to better restrict Chinese investments. Harrell said Congress should address limits on the ability of CFIUS to “review certain high-risk greenfield investments” by Chinese companies. “It's time to look, and for this committee to look, at continuing weaknesses in the CFIUS regime,” Harrell said during a Feb. 7 House Financial Services Committee hearing.
The Biden administration’s implementation of its new China chip export controls (see 2210070049) has been “mixed,” and it remains unclear how far allies will go to impose similar restrictions, said Clete Willems, who was a National Security Council official during the Trump administration. Willems, in written testimony this week to the House Financial Services Committee, said he doesn’t understand why the administration didn’t initially coordinate the October export control rule with allies, a shortcoming that could be hurting U.S. companies now.
The U.S. and its allies should establish a new multilateral export control system to prevent sensitive technologies from being sent to dangerous end-users, including those in China, said Rich Ashooh, a former senior U.S. export control official. Ashooh applauded American efforts so far and said it shouldn’t abandon the existing multilateral control regimes, but he said a more formal system is needed.
The U.S. Air Force last week said it disagreed with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. determination last year not to intervene in China-based Fufeng Group's purchase of North Dakota farm land (see 2212150035). Although CFIUS concluded it didn’t have jurisdiction, the deal presented “a significant threat to national security with both near- and long-term risks of significant impacts to our operations in the area,” Andrew Hunter, the Air Force’s assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in a letter to Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.
U.K.-based biotechnology company F-star Therapeutics and invoX Pharma, a subsidiary of China-based Sino Biopharmaceutical, are working with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. on a potential mitigation agreement for their proposed combination. In a Feb. 1 SEC filing, the parties said they voluntarily withdrew and “immediately refiled” a voluntary notice on Jan. 30 at the request of CFIUS to give them more time to “negotiate the terms of a mitigation agreement and continue discussions” with the committee.
A bipartisan bill could add the USDA secretary to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and block China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from investing in American agricultural companies. The bill is aimed at “preventing foreign adversaries from taking any ownership or control of the United States’ agricultural land and agricultural businesses,” lawmakers said.
Although former national security officials agreed that the U.S. should consider outbound investment review restrictions, they panned a congressional proposal that would have granted a new interagency committee “sweeping” power to restrict capital flows to China. Speaking during a House Financial Services Committee hearing this week, some of the former officials said Congress should rethink the proposal and also urged the Biden administration against issuing a unilateral executive order to establish an outbound investment review regime.
Former Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., has joined Arnold & Porter as a senior policy adviser and resident in the Legislative and Public Policy practice, the firm announced. In Congress, Kind served on the House Ways and Means Committee and its Subcommittees on Health and Trade, where he engaged on various issues including multiple free trade agreements, the CHIPS Act, and tax and pension reform legislation.