The corona pandemic, the ongoing Brexit and the emerging dominance of China in global markets are among the issues that pose multifaceted challenges for international trade relations. At a time when new Free Trade Agreements are being negotiated, we would like to examine how international trade can be shaped in the “World of New Normal” and what goals individual players, especially the US, EU, UK and China, are pursuing in their trade talks.…

On May 5, 2020, the European Commission published (i) the Communication of the Action Plan (AP) for a comprehensive EU policy on the prevention of money laundering and financing terrorism (AML/CFT); (ii) the Delegated Regulation updating the countries identified as high risk countries for AML/CFT; and (iii) the methodology for the identification of high risk third countries for AML/CFT. The EU is strengthening its AML/CFT policies by tightening and adapting existing policies to the dangers,…

On June 18, 2020, the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published in the Federal Register, a new interim final rule that amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) (15 CFR Parts 730-774) by excluding from the additional licensing requirements imposed by the designations of Huawei organization on the Entity List releases of technology related to establishing standards for 5G applications. BIS states that it is revising the Entity List with this…

New rules went into effect on February 13, 2020, that implemented the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA), expanding the authority of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the US agency that reviews foreign investments in the US for potential national security concerns. The new rules include CFIUS authority over certain transactions that involve property rights in airports or maritime ports. In this blog post, we summarize these…

Like various other European Union member states, Poland has taken the first step to passage of a new act intended to screen foreign direct investments in Polish companies. The goal of the legislation is to protect Polish companies against take-over by non-EU/EEA investors. This post is being published for The Trade Practitioner as part of a content partnership with our O-I-CEE! blog (Central and Eastern European legal news and views).…

On June 2, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it would be initiating new Section 301 investigations examining digital services taxes (DSTs) adopted or under consideration by Austria, Brazil, the Czech Republic, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.  USTR is requesting comments to inform their investigations into the various DSTs, and their impacts on US-based technology companies.  Stakeholders impacted by the DSTs should submit comments…

On Friday, May 29, President Trump announced several actions related to China and Hong Kong. The President’s delivered remarks and what was left unsaid were equally instructive. While we are still waiting on details for some of these actions, below is an overview of the President’s announcement.…