The Treasury Department has drafted a proposed rule that could lead to new outbound investment restrictions and notification requirements on deals involving China. The rule, sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for interagency review June 5, would build on the advance notice of proposed rulemaking issued by Treasury in August, which requested public comments on potential requirements for U.S. investments in China's quantum technology, artificial intelligence and semiconductor industries (see 2308090066). Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in May that the administration hopes to finalize the new rules by the end of this year (see 2405080039).
Exports to China
Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., have introduced a bill to reauthorize the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act for another five years, Rubio’s office announced June 6. The 2020 law, which expires in 2025, authorizes sanctions against entities and people responsible for human rights violations against the Uyghur minority ethnic group in China's Xinjiang region (see 2006170064).
U.S. in-house attorneys need to be more vigilant than ever when investigating possible export control violations, lawyers said this week, adding that the risks of a possible civil or criminal penalty for a subpar internal investigation, or for not disclosing a violation quickly enough, are rising.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., June 4 urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to consider sanctioning Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich over his West Bank policies.
Even if the EU decides against imposing higher tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in its ongoing countervailing duty probe (see 2310040012 and 2403150047), the bloc is likely to levy some sort of increased tariffs on Chinese EVs “in the future,” Taylor Wessing said in a June 3 client alert. The law firms said “observers believe” that the EU could raise those duties from the current 10-15% rate to about 30%.
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A top Treasury Department official this week called on U.S. companies and banks to bolster their trade compliance efforts, saying they need to do more to prevent their customers and counterparties from buying and shipping sensitive items for Russia’s military.
All 12 Republicans on the House Select Committee on China, including Chairman John Moolenaar of Michigan, urged the Treasury Department May 31 to investigate whether six Chinese companies should be sanctioned for helping Iran’s military and energy sectors evade U.S. sanctions.
A new rule that would impose a three-day deadline for certain responses to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. was unanimously criticized by several law firms, an industry group and the Chinese government, which said such a time frame doesn’t take into account the complex, time-consuming discussions companies must have when dealing with CFIUS. Some commenters also asked the committee to nix a proposed change that would raise the maximum penalty for violations from $250,000 per violation to $5 million, saying most violations are accidental, and the increase could rattle the “confidence” of foreign investors.
U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns is scheduled to give the Senate Foreign Relations Committee an update on U.S.-China relations during a closed-door hearing June 4. Further information on the hearing’s focus wasn't disclosed. Committee Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., said in February that he was working to craft a “comprehensive” bill to address a wide range of concerns about China (see 2402010067).