On June 29, 2020, the US Department of State announced that the US government “will today end exports of US-origin defense equipment and will take steps toward imposing the same restrictions on US defense and dual-use technologies to Hong Kong as it does for China.” The US Department of Commerce also announced on June 29, 2020, that, as part of the “revocation of Hong Kong’s special status,” the “Commerce Department regulations affording preferential treatment to…

As anticipated, President Trump issued a proclamation on June 22, suspending the ability of foreign nationals in common employment-based non-immigrant (temporary) categories to enter the United States. The proclamation, which is valid until December 31, 2020, places a suspension on the L-1, H-1B, H-2B, and specified J-1 categories. While the proclamation is significant, there are limits to its scope as well as exceptions that can be requested based upon the nature of the work that…

On June 17, 2020, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the US Department of State announced the addition of 17 individuals and 22 entities to the List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List), pursuant to the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019 (Caesar Act) and Executive Order 13894 (EO 13894), for their support of the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria, and actions to undermine…

On June 24, 2020, the US Department of Defense (“DoD”) sent a letter to Senator Tom Cotton enclosing a list of twenty companies headquartered in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) which DoD determined are operating directly or indirectly in the United States and are “Communist Chinese military companies.”  Titled “Qualifying Entities Prepared in Response to Section 1237 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999 (PUBLIC LAW 105-261),” the “DoD List”…

On 17 June, the European Commission released its White Paper “on levelling the playing field as regards foreign subsidies.” The White Paper is built on the conclusion that foreign subsidies can undermine competition and distort the EU internal market. It aims at introduction of new EU legislation to address the regulatory “gap” between the EU state aid rules applying to subsidies granted by the EU Member States to EU entities and the current lack of…

On June 18, 2020, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the addition of three individuals and eight entities to its list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List), pursuant to Executive Order 13850, for “their activities in or associated with a network attempting to evade United States sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector.”  OFAC also identified two vessels as blocked property belonging to the designated persons and…

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Commerzbank AG’s London branch (Commerzbank London) £37.8 million for failing to institute adequate anti-money laundering (AML) controls from 2012 to 2017 in violation of Principle 3 of the FCA’s Principles for Businesses. Mark Steward, the FCA’s Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight stated that “Commerzbank London’s failings over several years created a significant risk that financial and other crime might be undetected,” although the FCA did…