Companies operating in the biotechnology industry should be increasingly “mindful” of investment filing requirements, especially as the U.S. has “repeatedly emphasized the linkages” between the biotech space and national security, Hogan Lovells said in a December client alert. The law firm specifically pointed to the Biden administration's September executive order on U.S. investment review priorities (see 2209150053), which sent “yet another signal to the biotech sector and its prospective foreign investors that the U.S. Government considers biotech to be an area of critical importance for U.S. national security.”
The recent intervention by the U.S. in a Chinese foreign investment deal further highlights the Biden administration's investment review priorities and the sometimes “complicated” and “time-consuming” nature of those reviews, Vinson & Elkins said in a Dec. 27 client alert.
The U.S. may look to expand the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. after CFIUS determined it couldn’t intervene in China-based Fufeng Group's purchase of North Dakota farmland, law firms said this month. Congress could make a push to expand CFIUS next year, some firms suggested, especially after several lawmakers said the real estate transaction should have fallen under the committee's authority.
The 2023 government spending package (see 2212200025) includes language that could eventually lead to the establishment of a formal outbound investment review mechanism. The provision, included in explanatory statements covering funding for the Treasury and Commerce departments, could speed up the administration's efforts to create the regime, which has been proposed this year in legislation by lawmakers and publicly supported by senior administration officials.
The Biden administration shouldn’t relax restrictions on U.S. financial transactions with Cuba, which are needed to “hold the communist regime in Cuba accountable for human rights abuses and its sponsorship of international terrorism,” Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said in a Dec. 20 letter to the White House. The letter, signed by Sens. Jim Risch, of Idaho, and Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, both of Florida, specifically asks Biden not to revoke Cuba’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.
The Biden administration must do more to convince U.S. companies and banks to wind down business in China and Hong Kong, including through more outreach and potentially more sanctions, the top two lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said in a Dec. 19 letter to the White House and Treasury Department. Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said that while they welcomed the March 2021 sanctions against 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials for interfering in Hong Kong’s autonomy (see 2103170027), “we believe these actions have not gone far enough. More needs to be done to ensure that the [People’s Republic of China] understands the consequences of usurping democracy and sovereignty.”
Lawmakers are again expressing concern about the U.S. national security review of TikTok (see 2211230033), saying they fear the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. will allow the app to continue operating in the U.S. without divesting itself from its Chinese owner Bytedance.
A negotiating mandate from the European Council was agreed to on Dec. 20 by "EU member states' ambassadors" over the revised Generalized Scheme of Preferences regulation, which gives trade preferences to developing countries, the council announced. The new GSP largely upholds the "main features of the current system, but includes some improvements," including "stronger links" for human rights and the environment and improved monitoring and transparency of the scheme. A new link will be established between the trade preferences given to a country and their "cooperation on migration and the readmission of own nationals illegally present in the EU," the council said.
USDA and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative are accepting applications for new members to sit on agricultural trade advisory committees, the agencies said this week. Applications are being accepted for six Agricultural Technical Advisory Committees -- covering animals, fruits and vegetables, grains and more -- as well as the Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee, which advises the administration on the implementation and enforcement of trade agreements and trade policy. Members serve four-year terms without compensation. Applications are due by 5 p.m. Jan.31.
The Senate this week unveiled its fiscal year 2023 government spending package, which includes additional funding for key export control, sanctions and trade priorities. The package also includes another round of emergency defense aid for Ukraine.