As the first year of the Biden Administration comes to a close, the US government has continued to use sanctions and other trade tools to target Chinese companies, citing national security, alleged human rights violations, and a range of other policy reasons for its actions. Dozens of Chinese companies have been added to various US trade blacklists, with negative and often far-reaching impacts.
On January 24, 2022, the US Department of Commerce issued a request for information (“RFI”) to gather input on incentivizing domestic semiconductor investments and accelerate chip research to “ensure a robust domestic semiconductor industry.” Comments must be received by 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on March 25, 2022.
Join us for our 19th Annual Global Trade and Supply Chain Webinar Series entitled, “International Trade Developments in a Challenging New World,” which includes the latest international trade developments. This year, in a variety of sessions, our panels of experts will cover the key developments and latest trends on sanctions, export controls and Foreign Investment Review regimes. On the inbound side, there will be sessions on opportunities and compliance challenges arising out of FTAs, hot topics on Customs valuation, trends in customs audits and supply chain compliance challenges and logistics.
The compromise version of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (HR 6256) was recently passed by both chambers of Congress, and the legislation is now cleared for President Biden’s signature. It is expected that President Biden will sign the legislation into law soon. With strong bipartisan support, earlier versions of this legislation had passed the US House and Senate in the preceding months, and lawmakers reached an agreement that merged versions from each chamber.
In the first of our short videos, Kerry Contini (Partner, Washington, DC), Reagan Demas (Partner, Washington, DC), Christina Conlin (Partner, Chicago) and Maria Piontkovska (Associate, Los Angeles) focus on some of the key trends and priorities for companies across sectors and industries.
Join our webinar on Thursday, 20 January 2022 for an engaging discussion on trade compliance, customs laws and risks of sanctions within the cannabis industry. Our panel of legal experts in international trade compliance will discuss such topics as: what the cannabis industry can do to be more trade compliant, how to navigate the multi-jurisdictional variances in customs laws, how to reduce the risks associated with the import and export of cannabis and how to identify and mitigate sanctions risks.
A recent Washington Post article about child labor in the Brazilian acai industry underscores the need for companies to develop compliance programs intended to identify and mitigate the risk of possible child labor in their supply chains.
On December 2, 2021, the EU, UK, US, and Canada all imposed additional coordinated sanctions on Belarus as a punitive action against the government led by President Alexander Lukashenko, which has been accused of human rights violations and creating a migrant crisis at Belarusian borders. As further described below, the sanctions included the designation of a number of parties (individuals and entities), whilst certain individuals will also be subject to travel bans preventing them entering or transiting the EU and UK. The US has also introduced financial sectoral sanctions, similar to those already imposed by the EU, UK and Canada.
A helicopter view of each stage of the healthcare & life sciences supply chain lifecycle and an overview of the trends that businesses in the sector should consider in 2021 and beyond, including sustainability, digitalization and increased public funding.
Baker McKenzie’s international trade compliance lawyers from around the world discussed the major global legislative, judicial and administrative activities and trends in export controls, trade sanctions, customs compliance, and import requirements in nine 75 minute sessions which took place from 16 to 18 November 2021.