The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM or the Proposed Rule), issued by Treasury on June 21, 2024, would implement President Biden’s August 9, 2023, Executive Order on outbound investment, which addresses concerns related to...more
7/2/2024
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
China ,
Debt Financing ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Export Controls ,
Investment ,
National Security ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Proposed Regulation ,
SDN List ,
Semiconductors ,
Technology Sector ,
U.S. Treasury
On April 19, 2024, BIS removed almost all controls over exports and reexports to, and transfers within, Australia and the United Kingdom of items subject to the EAR. The action is the first change to U.S. export control...more
Key Points -
On January 16, 2024, Matthew Axelrod, Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s BIS announced key updates to BIS’s VSD process. The updates are also now reflected on BIS’s...more
1/26/2024
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Enforcement ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Exports ,
National Security ,
Negligence ,
Non-Prosecution Agreements ,
Penalties ,
Penalty Reductions ,
Self-Disclosure Requirements ,
U.S. Commerce Department ,
Voluntary Disclosure
Key Points -
On August 9, 2023, President Biden issued a long-anticipated Executive Order on outbound investment aimed at addressing concerns related to China’s advancement in sensitive technologies critical for military,...more
Key Points -
On March 2, 2023, DOJ announced that its NSD would hire more than 25 new prosecutors to investigate and prosecute sanctions evasion, export controls violations and similar economic crimes. Consistent with...more
Key Points -
The Export Control Reform Act of 2018 has been amended to give BIS the authority to regulate services and other activities of U.S. persons, wherever located, when in support of foreign “military, security, or...more
Key Points -
BIS amended the EAR to add a new criterion for placing a party on the Entity List: a sustained lack of cooperation by the host government to schedule and facilitate the completion of an end-use check of an...more
Key Points -
The U.S. Department of Commerce has reorganized and clarified the regulations describing when foreign-produced items outside the United States are and are not subject to the licensing and other obligations of...more
Key Points -
The United States, European Union, United Kingdom and other U.S. allies are currently considering a range of severe economic measures against Russia to impose in the event of a Russian military incursion into...more
1/31/2022
/ Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Controls ,
Financial Institutions ,
Foreign Policy ,
National Security ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
Sanctions ,
SDN List ,
Ukraine
Key Points -
On November 26, 2021, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a notice of proposed rulemaking related to “connected software applications” (“apps”) that aims to expressly incorporate transactions involving...more
As part of the United States’ response to Russia’s use of chemical weapons against Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny, the U.S. State Department applied a policy of denial to licenses and other approvals for exports to...more
Key Points -
On 11 June 2021 the European Union (the “EU”) published Regulation (EU) 2021/821 (the “Recast Regulation”) in its Official Journal, which marked the final step with respect to modernizing its existing dual use...more
On June 3, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14032 (Addressing the Threat from Securities Investments that Finance Certain Companies of the People’s Republic of China) (“CMIC EO”) that modifies the Trump-era...more
- On September 15, Treasury published a Final Rule adopting changes to the CFIUS mandatory filing framework for covered transactions involving critical technologies.
- Rather than being pegged to targeted industries...more
9/22/2020
/ CFIUS ,
Covered Transactions ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Exceptions ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
Filing Requirements ,
Final Rules ,
Foreign Investment ,
General Licenses ,
National Security ,
Technology Transfer Agreements
United States export control, sanctions, and foreign investment (CFIUS) regulations advance U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, but in very different ways. They are also quite complex. As a result, media...more
9/21/2020
/ Acquisitions ,
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
CFIUS ,
Commodities ,
Controlled Foreign Corporations ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
Foreign Direct Investment ,
Foreign Investment ,
Foreign Nationals ,
Foreign Policy ,
Jurisdiction ,
Mergers ,
National Security ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Popular ,
SDN List ,
Software ,
Technology
- On May 21, 2020, Treasury published a Proposed Rule to align the CFIUS mandatory filing framework for transactions involving critical technologies with existing export-licensing requirements.
- Under the Proposed Rule,...more
5/26/2020
/ CFIUS ,
Comment Period ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
Filing Requirements ,
FIRRMA ,
Foreign Investment ,
General Licenses ,
National Security ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Technology Sector ,
U.S. Treasury
- The U.S. Department of Commerce has published a highly complex and novel interim final rule extending the controls of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) over foreign-made items in Huawei’s contract manufacturing...more
5/21/2020
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Comment Period ,
Entity List ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
Foreign Direct Product Rule ,
Foreign Policy ,
General Licenses ,
Huawei ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
Manufacturers ,
National Security ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
Public Comment ,
Supply Chain ,
Technology Sector ,
Telecommunications ,
U.S. Commerce Department
- On April 28, 2020, the Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Department of Commerce announced changes to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) through three notices published on the Federal Register. The changes...more
4/30/2020
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Exceptions ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
Final Rules ,
General Licenses ,
Licensing Rules ,
Military End Use ,
National Security ,
Proposed Rules ,
U.S. Commerce Department
On April 4, the White House released an Executive Order establishing the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector (the “Committee”) to assess foreign...more
- BIS extended until May 15, 2020, the Temporary General License authorizing certain exports, reexports, and transfers to Huawei and other listed affiliates of specific types of items that are relevant to third parties.
-...more
3/13/2020
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Comment Period ,
Confidential Information ,
Entity List ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
General Licenses ,
Huawei ,
National Security ,
Public Comment ,
Technology Sector ,
Time Extensions ,
U.S. Commerce Department
Key Points
- On January 13, 2020, the U.S. Department of Treasury released final rules implementing FIRRMA, which reforms the CFIUS framework. These rules will take effect on February 13, 2020.
- The final rules...more
1/16/2020
/ Acquisitions ,
CFIUS ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Filing Requirements ,
Final Rules ,
FIRRMA ,
Foreign Investment ,
Mergers ,
National Security ,
Personal Data ,
Principal Place of Business ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Public Comment ,
U.S. Treasury
Key Points -
On January 6, 2020, BIS published an interim final rule to add a new worldwide (minus Canada) unilateral export control on a type of geospatial imagery software specially designed for training Deep...more
1/7/2020
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Comment Period ,
Emerging Technology Companies ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Control Reform Act (ECRA) ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
Machine Learning ,
National Security ,
Public Comment ,
Software ,
Technology ,
Technology Sector ,
Trump Administration
• On December 26, 2019, DDTC published an interim final rule that would allow, under certain conditions, encrypted technical data and software that is subject to the ITAR to be sent, shipped or stored outside the United...more
12/30/2019
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
Cloud Storage ,
Comment Period ,
Data Storage ,
Data Storage Providers ,
Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) ,
Encryption ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Exports ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
International Data Transfers ,
ITAR ,
National Security ,
Public Comment ,
Regulatory Burden ,
Software
Key Points
- On November 26, 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) issued a proposed rule to implement Executive Order 13873 of May 15, 2019, on “Securing the Information and Communications Technology and...more
12/4/2019
/ CFIUS ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Acquisitions ,
Foreign Adversaries ,
Foreign Investment ,
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) ,
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) ,
National Security ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Supply Chain ,
Trump Administration ,
U.S. Commerce Department
• The U.S. Department of Treasury released proposed rules implementing the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA) on September 17, 2019. Among other measures, these rules would establish how the Committee...more
9/23/2019
/ CFIUS ,
Covered Transactions ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Export Control Reform Act (ECRA) ,
FIRRMA ,
Foreign Investment ,
Interstate Commerce ,
National Security ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Real Estate Transactions ,
U.S. Treasury