The Bureau of Industry and Security approved more than a combined $100 billion worth of export licenses for shipments to Huawei and Chinese top chipmaker SMIC from November 9, 2020, through April 20, 2021, according to documents released Oct. 21 by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. BIS said it approved 113 licenses for Huawei -- about 70% of the total license applications it received -- for more than $61 billion worth of goods during that time period. The agency also approved 188 licenses for SMIC -- about 90% of the total it received -- for more than $41 billion worth of exports.
The United Kingdom and Caribbean Forum held the first meeting of their Economic Partnership Agreement's Trade and Development Committee Oct. 7 via videoconference, the U.K.'s Department for International Trade said Oct. 20. Issuing a communique following the meeting, the parties said the EPA secured continuity of a trading relationship worth over $4 billion, DIT said. The two sides discussed “tariff liberalisation, trade in goods and services, and Geographical Indications,” the DIT said. Representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, the Bahamas, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.K. attended the meeting.
The Treasury Department presented the results of its monthslong sanctions review (see 2107200024, 2107060012 and 2106220037) to the Senate Banking Committee Oct. 19, detailing how it hopes to better coordinate designations with trading partners and establish more modern, effective sanctions regimes. Although some senators applauded the agency’s commitment toward revising its sanctions approach, others questioned Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo about what they said have been several U.S. sanctions failings, including the administration's policies toward Nord Stream 2 and China’s reported purchases of Iranian oil.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. approved the acquisition of U.S.-based GP Strategies by United Kingdom-based Learning Technologies Group (see 2108160020). CFIUS approved the deal Oct. 7, LTG said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. LTG, a provider of digital workplace learning technologies, completed the acquisition, it said Oct. 15. GP Strategies is a workforce solutions provider.
U.S. intervention in the transaction between South Korea’s Magnachip Semiconductor Corp. and Beijing’s Wise Road Capital could set a new precedent for investment reviews and lead to more extraterritorial screening by U.S. trading partners in Europe and elsewhere, lawyers said.
Vietnam's Hai Phong City People's Committee issued a decision requiring the city's Customs Department to coordinate with Hai Phong Inland Waterway Port Authority and its port, warehouse and yard businesses to collect seaport toll fees, the state-run CustomsNews said Oct. 13. The agreement will also monitor subjects that are exempt from fee collection and toll-fee collection levels based on the Port Authority's request. Further, the Customs Department has proposed and coordinated with relevant units to implement a system of automated management and control of toll collection at the port supporting online fee declaration and payment using e-invoices, CustomsNews said. The tolls are to be directed to improvements to seaport infrastructure.
A Chinese technology company this month signed a national security agreement with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. involving the company’s 2016 acquisition of a U.S. data services firm. CFIUS and China-based Genimous Technology on Oct. 1 finalized the NSA, which outlines several conditions for Genimous’ acquisition of U.S.-based Spigot, Yicai Global, a Chinese state-run media organization, reported Oct. 8. According to the NSA, Genimous will hire a CFIUS-approved safety director and a safety compliance officer to oversee certain “data security issues,” the report said. Genimous must also store all personal data on U.S. users within the U.S. and can’t export that data to “any other associated firms” without approval from the safety director. Genimous must also restructure its “overseas associate firm” so that the majority of its board of directors -- who will be subject to CFIUS approval -- are U.S. citizens.
Lawmakers introduced a bill last week that would seek to further protect the U.S. agriculture industry from “improper” foreign investment and add the agriculture secretary to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. The Foreign Adversary Risk Management Act, introduced in the Senate by Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and in the House by Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and Filemon Vela, D-Texas, would address that CFIUS “does not directly consider the needs of the agriculture industry when reviewing foreign investment and ownership in domestic businesses,” the lawmakers said.
The U.S.’s new export restrictions over certain biological equipment software could have a major impact on life science companies, universities and research organizations, and could present significant foreign investment screening hurdles, law firms said. While the restrictions were issued multilaterally and will only seek to stop certain software exports that can be exploited for biological weapons purposes, firms warned that the new restrictions could still be difficult to manage.
The Bureau of Industry and Security should work to raise export enforcement awareness and prioritize deterrence through large penalties, said Matthew Axelrod, President Joe Biden’s nominee to oversee BIS enforcement work. Speaking during his nomination hearing last week, Axelrod highlighted BIS’s yearslong lack of Senate-confirmed leadership in the Office of Export Enforcement and said his background as a federal prosecutor makes him the right fit for the role.