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2023 witnessed significant developments from the United States government aimed at countering China’s influence and curbing potential threats to U.S. national security. These developments have spanned legislative and administrative action, shifting long-standing paradigms within export controls, import controls, and sanctions. The Biden Administration is increasingly utilizing these tools as strategic elements of foreign policy, often in conjunction with allied nations.

The restrictions on trade with China are rapidly evolving and increasingly nuanced, influenced by growing Congressional attention on the U.S.-China relationship, increased pressure on the Department of Commerce, and international interest in upholding strong supply chains. For companies to navigate these tensions, they must remain well-informed regarding the myriad of regulations which have been imposed in the past year.

This post is the first in a series dedicated to highlighting notable developments in the sanctions and export controls realm targeting China. This series will span across three sectors in which our team has been notably engaged: technology, energy, and supply chain resiliency. The final blog in the series will forecast expected developments through 2024.

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The United Kingdom introduced new sanctions against Russia on December 14, 2023, with the European Union also adopting its twelfth package of sanctions against Russia on December 18, 2023.

The latest UK restrictions include:

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On October 5, 2023, the National Archives Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) released a joint notice to provide guidance on facility clearances for joint ventures (JVs) in the National Industrial Security Program (NISP). This guidance addresses the interaction of NISP requirements and an October 16, 2020 Small Business Administration (SBA) rule on JVs and also aims to clarify confusion arising from a Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision interpreting the SBA 2020 rule. The ISOO joint notice concludes that the SBA rule on JVs does not materially alter the requirements under the NISP concerning which entities are required to obtain facility security clearances (FCL) and a NISP Cognizant Security Agency (CSA) (such as the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency) will continue to make these determinations.

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On November 6, 2023, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a $206,213 settlement with Swift Prepaid Solutions, Inc. d/b/a daVinci Payments (daVinci) for apparent violations of sanctions regarding Crimea, Iran, Syria and Cuba. The financial services and payments firm was penalized by OFAC for enabling prepaid reward cards to be redeemed by persons who purchased the cards from sanctioned jurisdictions.

The November 6 settlement reflects a growing trend in OFAC enforcement actions to emphasize the importance of geolocation and blocking for financial and web services companies.

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https://www.globaltradeandsanctionslaw.com/files/2023/11/1200px-US-DOC-BureauOfIndustryAndSecurity-Seal.svg_-300x300.pngOn November 6, 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) held a public briefing to address industry questions concerning the latest export controls on advanced computing and semiconductor manufacturing. The new controls, which BIS announced on October 17, 2023, update existing export restrictions related to advanced computing and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The public briefing did not provide substantive updates to the October 17 announcements but offered context and indicated where BIS intends to issue additional guidance.

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In their recent client alert, “OFAC Issues New Sanctions Targeting Hamas’s Financing Networks,” colleagues Nancy A. Fischer, Aaron R. Hutman, Matthew R. Rabinowitz, Samantha Franks, Arielle R. Heffez and Erin Kwiatkowski discuss two rounds of sanctions imposed by the U.S. government on Hamas, other terrorist groups and Iranian networks in the wake of the October 7 attacks on Israel.

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In “OMB Finalizes ‘Build America, Buy America’ Domestic Content Guidance,” colleagues Stephan E. Becker, Marques O. Peterson, Nancy A. Fischer, Moushami P. Joshi, Samantha Franks and Amaris Trozzo examine the finalized “Build America, Buy America” guidance, which clarifies content requirements for non-federal government #infrastructure projects that benefit from federal funding.

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Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts present myriad opportunities for foreign businesses particularly in the energy, construction and tech sectors. At the same time, it is imperative for foreign businesses to approach these opportunities with a well-informed strategy. Understanding and navigating the complex regulatory and legal risks is key to maximizing opportunities and maximizing contributions to the reconstruction process.

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On August 9, 2023, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Addressing United States Investments in Certain National Security Technologies and Products in Countries of Concern. The new Executive Order (EO) is the culmination of more than a year of deliberation by the Biden Administration regarding outbound investment provisions and kicks off a 45-day comment process to develop a new regulatory mechanism for reviewing outbound investments in foreign countries of concern. This regulatory process and the criteria under consideration are described in the Department of the Treasury’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM), the key aspects of which are summarized below.

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The new EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) has now finally taken effect. Under the FSR the European Commission (EC) will have new powers to intervene against distortions to competition in the EU internal market caused by companies active in the EU that benefit from foreign financial contributions (FFC) and conduct investigations into potentially distorting FFCs. The FSR also introduces a new notification regime for certain M&A transactions and public tenders to mitigate against the risk of distortive subsidies granted by third countries.

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