The United Kingdom’s new foreign investment screening law may draw more industry filings than first expected, Baker McKenzie lawyer Sunny Mann said. Although the U.K.’s new National Security and Investment Act doesn’t officially take effect until Jan. 4, Mann said many companies are already showing signs they plan to be careful and notify the U.K. before closing investment deals, rather than waiting for the government to intervene.
The Bureau of Industry and Security needs to better enforce its foreign direct product (FDP) rule, which is not adequately stopping Huawei and other Chinese companies from acquiring certain sensitive U.S.-produced technology, eight Republican senators said in a Nov. 15 letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The senators said Commerce’s “lax enforcement” of the rule has encouraged other technology firms to sell to companies on the Entity List, said the lawmakers, who all serve on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
The European Union expanded the listing criteria under its Belarus sanctions regime to target the "instrumentalisation of human beings carried out by the Belarus regime for political purposes," the European Council said Nov. 15. The EU can now target individuals and entities that help the EU external border crossings between Poland and Belarus. The move comes as a direct response to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's allegedly deliberate attempts to herd thousands of migrants, primarily from Iraq and Afghanistan, to the Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian borders. "Today's decision reflects the determination by the European Union to stand up to the instrumentalisation of migrants for political purposes," said Josep Borrell, the council's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. "We are pushing back on this inhuman and illegal practice. At the same time, we continue to underline the unacceptable ongoing repression by the regime against its own population at home, and we will respond accordingly."
The European Union General Court on Nov. 10 rejected Syrian businessman Waseem Alkattan's application to be dropped from the EU's Syria sanctions list, according to an unofficial translation of a judgment. The EU in two actions maintained Alkattan's listing under the Syria sanctions regime. The court said the European Council properly established that Alkattan is an influential businessman in Syria, thus warranting his placement on the list. The council cited Alkattan's business interests in real estate, luxury hotels and shopping malls and his associations with the Syrian regime, the court said.
The European Union added four recently appointed ministers to its Syria sanctions regime, in a Nov. 15 notice, the European Council said. The four are Amr Salem, minister of internal trade and consumer protection; Boutros Al-Hallaq, minister of information; Mohammad Seifeddine, minister of labor and social affairs; and Diala Barakat, minister of state. The restrictive measures on Syria now apply to 287 individuals subject to a travel ban and asset freeze, and 70 entities subject to an asset freeze.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo met with Trade Minister Hagiuda Koichi Nov. 15, and talked about strengthening supply chains, export controls and cooperating on digital technologies -- and talked about how to cooperate to confront excess capacity in steel and aluminum. Japanese exports of steel face a 25% tariff in the U.S., and after the U.S. agreed to tariff rate quotas on steel with Europe, Japan asked to get a similar deal.
The U.S. and the United Kingdom announced new sanctions against Nicaragua Nov. 15 for human rights violations or actions that have undermined democracy in the country. The U.S. designated nine government officials and one government entity, while the U.K. sanctioned eight government officials.
The Senate is “likely” to vote on the annual defense policy bill this week, which could include the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. In a Nov. 14 letter to lawmakers, Schumer said “there seems to be fairly broad” bipartisan support for adding USICA to the National Defense Authorization Act, which would allow a USICA negotiation with the House “to be completed alongside” the NDAA before the end of the year. The House plans to write its own version of USICA.
Cross-border transaction attorney Robert Kossick has joined Harris Bricken's Washington, D.C.-based international trade practice, the firm announced. A licensed customs broker, Kossick has experience in "import compliance and enforcement, export control and economic sanction, and supply chain security issues," Harris Bricken said. Kossick has worked at a variety of firms in Florida, Texas and Washington state, as well as internationally, over the past 25 years.
Julia Nestor, former federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, joined Reed Smith as a partner in the New York office, the firm announced. Nestor will work in the Global Regulatory and Investigations practice, where she will continue her focus on anti-bribery and corruption, trade and banking compliance and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act sanctions, the firm said.