On Tuesday, May 19, the U.S. Commerce Department published a regulation (effective May 15, 2020) that prohibits sale to Huawei of a microchip made to a Huawei specification, made outside the United States with non-U.S. materials, sent from a foreign country, by a foreign person.
To quote the philosopher, hol’ up.
How is that even possible?
Continue Reading Huawei Whack-A-Mole: The U.S. Takes Another Swing at the Chinese Semiconductor Industry
Taking a break from reporting on COVID-19 legal developments, we turn for a moment to what is happening now on export control of autonomous vehicle technology.
The autonomous vehicle R&D sector is booming, largely in the last three years. Companies are investing in sensor technology and machine learning, and creating pilot programs to test self-driving cars both for individuals and ride-sharing purposes.
Continue Reading The Emerging Landscape for Export Controls on Autonomous Vehicle Technology
On January 16, 2020, the United States Senate voted by an overwhelming majority to pass the implementing legislation for the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA)
Continue Reading Modernizing NAFTA: The United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement
*This is an updated version of the December 10th blog post.
Key Takeaways:
Continue Reading Comment Deadline Extended: Export Controls on Emerging Technologies
Key Takeaways:
Export controls and other regulations often lag a step or two behind the times. That trend has accelerated with the pace of technological advancement. As a result, for many years, technical know-how in many cutting-edge technical fields has not been subject to export controls. This has meant that many commercial technical innovations could be freely exported without significant restrictions. As long as they were not designed for a military application, and no encryption technology involved, many new ideas developed in the United States were simply unaccounted for in the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR).
But the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is about to make up a lot of ground in a single, large leap.
Continue Reading The Little Regulation That Will Make a Big Change in How You Do Business: Department of Commerce to Establish New Export Controls on Emerging Technologies
A tripartite agreement to save the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has just been reached. Since June 2017, the United States, Canada, and Mexico have been renegotiating NAFTA. After over a year of negotiations, late on Sunday night, September 30, 2018, Canada agreed to sign the revised agreement. That agreement is called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
Continue Reading The New NAFTA: the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)
Key Points
1. All sanctions on Iran that were in place before January 2016 will be re-imposed no later than November, 4 2018.
2. Secondary sanctions that penalize non-U.S. persons doing business with Iran will be reinstated.
3. General License H, allowing non-U.S. subsidiaries of U.S. companies to do business in Iran, will be revoked.
4. In some cases, companies may take payments or repayments for sales, loans, or credits to Iran after November 4, 2018
Continue Reading Client Alert: Iran Sanctions Return
Introduction
Our “trends for 2018” are only a selection of interesting developments to watch for in 2018.
Within the political and legislative cycle of the European Union, 2018 promises to be an eventful year, given that it is the last full year before the 2019 EU elections when a new European Commission will be appointed and the European Parliament will hold new elections. This means, in practice, that there will be pressure in 2018 on the current European Commission and European Parliament to act on all their initiatives and to complete their legislative agenda.
Our team of EU lawyers will continue to report on noteworthy developments including for instance, Brexit and its implications for competition and regulatory policies, the surge in foreign direct investment controls, the opening of new competition enforcement fronts, the practical implementation of the EU damages directive, as well as the development of alternative means of resolution in competition investigations and their impact on rights of defence.
We invite you to contact us directly should you have an interest in discussing any topic further or in obtaining additional information. We hope you will enjoy the read!
Continue Reading 2018 EU Trade, Regulatory and Competition Trends
The Trump Administration has made good on its promise to cut back on the liberalized Cuban policy implemented by the Obama Administration with a new regime that introduces new travel restrictions as well as broad prohibitions on “direct financial transactions” between persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and parties on a new Cuban Restricted List (CRL) that has been published by the State Department.
Continue Reading Retrenchment on Cuban Sanctions; The Search for a Middle Ground
On June 19, Commerce Secretary Ross mentioned at a Wall Street Journal CFO dinner that the Administration is now considering launching an investigation of semiconductor imports under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Ross said the specific concern is the threat of China to surpass U.S. semiconductor production.
Continue Reading Dinner Table Conversation: How an Offhand Comment May Signal a Shift in the Global Trade of Semiconductors
Sheppard Mullin’s EU team has created a list of major legal shifts that await General Counsel and Compliance Officers in the areas of competition, EU regulatory and trade in 2017. These challenges may have an impact on your corporate and commercial strategies.
Our predictions include:
Continue Reading Top 12 EU Legal Developments to Watch in 2017