The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. will maintain its focus on Chinese investment, prioritize enforcement and continue to tweak its jurisdiction under the Joe Biden administration (see 2009170017 and 2010270050), trade lawyers said. CFIUS also will likely continue to see an increase in filings, the lawyers said.
As China continues to gain ground in technology competition with the U.S., Congress should pursue more investment and visa restrictions to prevent China from accessing sensitive U.S. technologies, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in a Dec. 1 report. Commissioners said China’s access to U.S. technologies is helping it innovate and export surveillance tools and other advanced technologies globally.
Taiwan wants to continue the momentum from its November economic dialogue with the U.S. to begin negotiating a trade deal and collaborate more on investment screening, Taiwan’s representative to the U.S. said. Bi-khim Hsiao, an official with Taipei’s Economic and Cultural Representative Office, said the island is particularly interested in boosting its screening mechanisms for foreign investments.
Freshfields hired Colin Costello, previously acting director of the National Intelligence Council’s Investment Security Group in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the law firm said in a news release. Costello worked closely with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. process while in government and will be a CFIUS client adviser, the firm said.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for Oct. 26-30 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Dorsey & Whitney added international lawyer Justin Huff, previously with Jones Day, as a partner. He has experience with technology, telecom and other sectors in analyzing transactions for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) reviewing national security matters, Dorsey said in a news release.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. is placing more of an emphasis on enforcement and outreach after the committee’s jurisdiction was expanded earlier this year, trade lawyers said. The lawyers also said they are noticing more transactions being notified to CFIUS, especially those that involve personal data and critical technologies.
The White House released a national strategy for critical and emerging technologies that it said will better synchronize agency efforts amid technology competition with China. The strategy builds on export control efforts carried out by the Commerce Department, a senior administration official said, and will allow government offices to better align their strategies as the U.S. restricts Chinese access to sensitive U.S. technologies.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for Oct. 5-9 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
A former U.S. official and a Senate staffer who worked closely with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. criticized the Bureau of Industry and Security’s handling of emerging and foundational technologies, saying the lengthy process is impeding the work of CFIUS. David Hanke, the former staffer and architect of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, called CFIUS’s reliance on BIS’s export control effort a “deeply flawed system,” while Nova Daly, the Treasury Department’s former deputy assistant secretary for investment security and policy, acknowledged the process is difficult but said BIS should move faster.