Insights

On April 11, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued guidance regarding the implementation and enforcement of the newly enacted final rule, “Preventing Access to U.S. Sensitive Personal Data and Government-Related Data by Countries of Concern or Covered Persons,” now referred to as the Data Security Program (DSP). The release included an Implementation and Enforcement Policy, a Compliance Guide, and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Collectively, these documents are designed to help entities subject to the DSP understand and comply with the obligations set out under the Final Rule.

On March 12, 2025, the Government of Canada announced plans to launch the Canadian Program for Cyber Security Certification (CPCSC). CPCSC is a cybersecurity compliance verification program that aims to protect sensitive unclassified government information handled by Canadian government contractors and subcontractors within Canada’s defense sector. Canada will roll out CPCSC to contractors in four phases, with the first phase launching this month.

As digitalization has become more ubiquitous and attacks surfaces widened, the number of cyberattacks have correspondingly increased. In 2024, ransomware attacks in particular grew in their frequency and impact. In an effort to enact more stringent policy approaches, governments introduced over 170 data protection laws between 2023 and 2024. With not a single company immune from these regulatory winds, industry must keep a close watch.

Significant shifts in U.S. technology policy are taking shape at the start of the new administration. This is especially true in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), where President Trump revoked President Biden’s Executive Order 14110, titled “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence,” as part of his flurry of Day One executive actions. The administration is now moving quickly to put its own stamp on this area in an effort to strengthen U.S. AI leadership and competitiveness and outpace other nations, particularly the People’s Republic of China.

Amid the continued exponential rise and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, the Council of Europe set a unique precedent earlier this year by adopting the first-of-its-kind legally binding international AI framework. Aimed at ensuring the respect of human rights, the rule of law, and democracy in the use of AI systems, the framework strikes an important balance in addressing the risks throughout the lifecycle of an AI system without hampering innovation.

On October 30, 2023, President Biden released an Executive Order (EO) on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).  This landmark EO seeks to advance the safe and secure development and deployment of AI by implementing a society-wide effort across government, the private sector, academia, and civil society to harness “AI for good,” while mitigating its substantial risks.

On 16 July 2020, we started one of our Client Alerts as follows:

On March 1, 2023, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) issued the Biden Administration’s 2023 Trade Policy Agenda (“Agenda”) and 2022 Annual Report (“Report”). The Report was submitted to the Congress pursuant to Section 163 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended. The Report’s 211 pages, plus three annexes, detail the Administration’s ongoing trade priorities and summarize trade activities in 2022, including trade agreements and negotiations, trade enforcement activities, other trade activities, and updates on work at the World Trade Organization.

On February 28, 2023, the Commerce Department released the first Notice of Funding Opportunity (“First NOFO”) under the recently enacted CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS Act), P.L. 117-167. The First NOFO seeks applications for assistance—including direct funding, loans, and loan guarantees—for projects to construct, expand, or modernize commercial semiconductor facilities.  

On October 7, 2022, President Biden signed an executive order implementing the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.  Announced in March, this framework replaces the Privacy Shield program that the EU Court of Justice invalidated in July 2020 with its Schrems II decision. That decision stated that the United States did not provide a level of data protection that was “essentially equivalent” to that provided within the EU because signal intelligence surveillance by U.S. agencies was considered too broad and EU residents were not provided with effective remedies.

There is a great urgency for all stakeholders, including governments, employers, academia to invest in digital upskilling and reskilling of the workforce, as digital skills become integral to the future of work and post-COVID-19 recovery. According to the APEC Closing the Digital Skills Gap Report: Trends and Insights, in developing economies such as China, Indonesia and Mexico, the demand for digitally skilled workers has been growing much faster than supply. Additionally, economies such as New Zealand, Singapore, and United States are hiring individuals with digital talent at the fastest month on month rates.

Private companies account for over 71% of global emissions and are a vital group in the fight to reach net zero. This article explores the trend towards uniform environmental reporting standards in a bid to incentivize firms to improve their environmental performance.

On May 13, the Government of Canada released its “modernized and inclusive” Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement Model (“FIPA Model”), sending a message that it intends to continue to provide international dispute resolution protections to foreign investors. The original iteration of the FIPA Model dates to 2004, which Canada had stated built on its experiences with NAFTA. It subsequently released an updated iteration in 2014. The current FIPA Model reflects further updates based on stakeholder consultations in 2018-2019.

After 100 days in office, President Joe Biden has made it clear that he is not afraid to go it alone to pursue policy to match his campaign rhetoric and promises. The first 100 days of the administration were marked by a significant number of executive orders, a historic economic stimulus package passed with only Democratic support in Congress, and sweeping proposals that – if enacted – could transform everyday life for a significant number of Americans.

President Biden signed an Executive Order (EO) today to strengthen Buy American policies and practices across the federal government, his first major action to follow-up on a campaign promise to ensure the future is “Made in All of America.”  While placing a Buy American approach at the center of his economic agenda, the impact of today’s order rests largely on its implementation by agencies, including potentially significant proposals on what products qualify as domestic end products and greater scrutiny of the use of waivers to Made in America Laws.  The EO appears to sidestep, at least for now, broader questions on how the Administration’s goal to increase federal purchasing of domestic products will interact with U.S. trade commitments and the goal to deepen cooperation with U.S. partners and allies.  A statement notes only that the Administration is committed to working with partners and allies to “modernize international trade rules” related to government procurement.

Keeping pace with the rapidly changing geopolitics in the region, the last week has brought a series of Iran-related sanctions developments with which global businesses need to keep up.  First, on January 10, the United States further escalated sanctions against Iran, creating new designation authorities for those “operating in” Iran’s construction, mining, manufacturing, and textile sectors under Executive Order 13902 (“EO 13902”).  These new measures come amidst the recent escalation of conflict between the U.S. and Iran.  With the issuance of EO 13902 the U.S. announced it is taking additional steps “to deny Iran revenue, including revenue derived from the export of products from key sectors of Iran’s economy that may be used to fund and support its nuclear program, missile development, terrorism and terrorist proxy networks, and malign regional influence.”1  Concurrently, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced sanctions against key Iranian officials as well as several of the largest companies in the Iranian metals industries as well as certain Chinese and Seychelles based entities involved in the purchase and transport of certain metals from Iran.