Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
U.S.-based TuSimple Holdings, which provides self-driving truck and autonomous freight shipping technology, recently entered into a national security agreement with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. involving a 4-year-old transaction (see 2111230075). The NSA includes restrictions on the company’s data sharing and requires the company to “periodically meet with and report” to CFIUS monitoring agencies, according to a recent SEC filing.
Increasing Chinese investments in U.S. agriculture could reduce China’s need for American exports and give Beijing “undue leverage over U.S. supply chains,” the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in a report last week. The U.S. may need to rethink or improve how it uses the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to better catch those investments, the commission said, which may be harming U.S. economic and national security.
John Beahn, former head of Shearman & Sterling's Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and foreign direct investment practice, has joined Milbank as a partner, the firm announced in an email. Beahn's work will center on CFIUS matters and FDI proceedings as well as national security issues, including sanctions and arms controls, the firm said.
As countries continue to impose trade restrictions against Russia and Belarus, companies should expect longer review times and increased scrutiny on foreign direct investment involving either of those two nations, law firms said. Deal-makers in the EU should specifically prepare for more red tape resulting from a recent “sweeping” guidance from the European Commission, Fried Frank said in a May 2 alert, which could also speed up the rollout of further mandatory FDI screening regimes across Europe.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Biden administration should “employ all tools necessary” to stop Chinese-owned Nexperia’s acquisition of Newport Wafer Fab (NWF), a U.K.-based chip facility, the Republican-led China Task Force said in a letter to the White House released April 21. If the acquisition is completed, the U.S. should remove the U.K. from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. white list and impose strict export controls on shipments to NWF, the House members said.
Swiss renewable energy company Viston United Swiss will submit a filing to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. regarding its planned acquisition of California-based Petroteq Energy, an oil production and technology company, Petroteq said in an April 18 SEC filing. The two companies first submitted a declaration to CFIUS in February, but after the committee said it was “unable” to clear the transaction, the companies “pre-filed” a notice with CFIUS April 6, Petroteq said. The companies hope to submit a formal notice “on an expedited basis” in the hopes of beginning CFIUS' 45-day notice review period "as soon as practicable.”
Mimecast, a U.S. information technology security company, received approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to be acquired by U.K.-based Magnesium Bidco, Mimecast said in an April 1 filing. The company was told March 31 that CFIUS had “no unresolved national security concerns” with the transaction. The companies had submitted a notification to CFIUS in February (see 2202180020).
The U.S. should redouble efforts to control emerging and foundational technologies, establish a new outbound investment screening regime and create a new multilateral export control forum with close allies, said Emily Kilcrease, an economic statecraft expert with the Center for a New American Security. A new multilateral regime could be challenging to stand up, Kilcrease said, but is “imperative” to prevent proliferation of sensitive technologies to adversaries, including China and Russia.