On July 7, 2022, the Treasury Department laid out how it would work with its overseas counterparts and in international forums as the U.S. studies cryptocurrencies to set up a possible regulatory regime. This framework is the first executive agency response as mandated President Biden’s March executive order on crypto that we wrote about here.
Continue Reading Treasury Department Seeks to Coordinate Globally on Crypto Regulation
So you’d like to build a new fabrication facility in China, or just add some capabilities to your existing plant? Well, the U.S. Government may want to have a look at that transaction—and may soon have the authority to stop that transaction.
Continue Reading Reverse CFIUS? S∩IℲƆ? New outbound investment review process becoming more likely
The U.S. photovoltaic (PV) industry, solar module suppliers, manufacturers, and renewable energy developers are facing new regulatory challenges with the implementation of new legislation which has a significant impact on such imports. Among the most significant is the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, Pub. L. No. 117-78, 135 Stat. 1525 (2021) (“UFLPA”), whose provisions became fully effective on June 21, 2022.
On April 29, 2022, the UK introduced new measures to prevent the provision of internet services to or for the benefit of designated persons.[1] These measures apply to the whole territory of the UK and to conduct by UK persons where that conduct is wholly or partly outside the UK. The designated entities or individuals (“Designated Persons”) can be found on the regularly updated UK Sanctions List with the tag “Internet Sanctions List”. To date, only V-Novosti and Rossiya Segodnya are designated under those authorities.
Continue Reading Introduction of internet-related Russia trade sanctions in the UK
On Monday, President Biden issued an Executive Order suspending the collection of anti-dumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) of certain solar cells and modules exported from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Executive Order comes on the heels of a Commerce Department investigation initiated back in March 2022 into whether solar cell and modules from the aforementioned countries were circumventing AD/CVD duties on solar cells and modules made in China. The anticircumvention investigation, however, will continue to run its normal course, and if circumvention is found, AD/CVD duties will not be imposed until the end of the 24 month period (or until the emergency is declared terminated) (see here).
On May 6, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated a cryptocurrency mixer, Blender.io, as a Specially Designated National (SDN). That sanction follows a series of enforcements and sanctions which we have previously discussed here and here.
In recent years, a wide array of trade actions pursued by the United States, foreign and domestic policies of the United States and China, reputational risks, and supply chain breakdowns are driving a trend of more and more manufacturing moving from Asia to Mexico. The Biden Administration has made no secret of its desire to encourage U.S. manufacturers and their component suppliers to move production from China to Mexico.[i]
Continue Reading The Trend of Production Moving from China to Mexico – Regulatory and Practical Considerations: Zai Jian Zhongguo, Bienvenidos a México
On Sunday, the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced novel and sweeping sanctions on specific categories of services in order to cripple Russia’s wartime capabilities and sanctioned key individuals at Russian banks and state-owned television stations. Concurrently, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) made available for public inspection a final rule expanding export restrictions by imposing a license requirement for exports, reexports, or transfers (in-country) to and within Russia on additional items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR).
Continue Reading Novel Sanctions Against Business-Related Services Connected to Russia and Additional Export Restrictions
Last week, the United States government imposed additional restrictions on the imports from, and exports to, Russia. The import changes stem from the Suspending Normal Trade Relations with Russia and Belarus Act, signed into law by President Biden, that increase the duties for products that claim Russia or Belarus as their country of origin. In terms of exports, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a press release last Saturday announcing further controls on the export and reexport of U.S.-origin and certain foreign-produced commodities, software, and technologies to Russia and Belarus by amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The expanded rule is currently under public inspection in the Federal Register and will be published tomorrow.
Continue Reading Additional Import and Export Restrictions in Response to Russia’s Aggression in Ukraine
Updated as of April 12, 2022
It has now been more than 40 days since the start of Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. Today, following the recent revelations of the atrocities committed in Bucha, Ukraine by Russian armed forces, the United States – in coordination with the G7 and the EU – imposed new sanctions on Russia (see here). The sweeping new sanctions seek to further restrict Russia’s access to dollars and put economic pressure on Putin to end the war. The sanctions include a ban on all new investment in Russia as well as designations of Russia’s largest financial institutions (i.e., Sberbank and Alfa Bank), critical state-owned enterprises, and Russian government officials and their family members, including Putin’s children.
Continue Reading U.S. and Allies Impose Additional Severe Costs on Russia for Atrocities in Ukraine
The recent comprehensive economic sanctions by the U.S. and other nations against Russia has propelled the crypto community onto the geo-political stage in a major way. As with other forms of payment and methods of money transmission, cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency exchanges are at risk for exploitation by criminal actors, including those attempting to evade economic sanctions. Several attributes of cryptocurrencies that are usually touted in favor of the technology—pseudonymity, decentralization, digitalization—are now giving government officials, regulators, and lawmakers cause for concern in the sanctions climate. In response, leaders in the crypto community are voicing support of sanctions compliance, and citing aspects of the technology—traceability, immutability, visibility—in reassurance of it. As discussed below, there are several steps that crypto platforms can take to further efforts in blocking and detecting sanctions evasion activity on their platforms.
Continue Reading Crypto and Russia Sanctions: A Primer and Survival Guide For Crypto Companies