Insights

Since Donald Trump’s election to a second term as President of the United States, the possibility of U.S. trade measures against the European Union became more tangible. The new administration is reportedly considering imposing sanctions on certain EU Member States and imposing additional tariffs on EU exports to the U.S.

President-elect Donald Trump plans to impose widespread tariffs when he takes office in late January 2025. He has stated that one of his first executive orders will be to impose a 25% tariff on all products imported from Canada or Mexico. Products imported from China, such as metals, coatings, plumbing components and HVAC parts, could face an additional 10% tax above current tariffs. The imposition of such tariffs will have significant implications for megaprojects, including large infrastructure developments like highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and railways, as well as large-scale energy projects like power plants, oil and gas facilities, and renewable energy installations.

President Donald Trump’s planned (or proposed) tariffs in his second administration may have a profound impact on megaprojects, including large infrastructure developments like highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and railways, as well as large-scale energy projects like power plants, oil and gas facilities, and renewable energy installations.

On 18 September 2024, the UK Supreme Court handed down its judgment in UniCredit Bank GmbH v RusChemAlliance LLC [2024] UKSC 30.  The judgment considers several significant issues relevant to international arbitration.  Primarily, though, it reaffirms: (i) the English court’s strong support for arbitration, in general; (ii) the steps it is prepared to take to hold parties to their agreement to arbitrate; and (iii) the current position for determining the governing law of an arbitration agreement, in the absence of an express election by the parties.

On May 22, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division (NSD) announced its first declination to prosecute a company under its Enforcement Policy for Business Organizations (Enforcement Policy).

On April 24, 2024, President Biden signed into law the National Security Supplemental fiscal package, which includes significant new sanctions and export controls authorities. Although the U.S. foreign aid commitments for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan headline the new law, it also (1) expands the statute of limitations for U.S. sanctions violations; (2) includes new authorities for the President to coordinate sanctions efforts with the European Union and the United Kingdom; (3) expands sanctions and export controls on Iran (including some targeted at Chinese financial institutions); and (4) includes new sanctions authorities targeting terror groups.

After publishing a proposed rule in March 2023 on how it will implement the national security guardrails for the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 (“CHIPS Act”) (the “Proposed Rule”), which all funding recipients are required to follow, the U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) published the corresponding final rule, (the “Final Rule”). The Final Rule will come into effect on November 24, 2023.

The Outbound Investment Program will be implemented through regulations issued by Treasury that will require notification for, or will otherwise prohibit U.S. persons from undertaking, certain transactions involving “covered national security products or technologies” and entities connected to a “country of concern.” Accordingly – concurrent with the Executive Order – Treasury released an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that provides some potential definitions of these terms, but the exact definitions and the details of the regulations will be developed through public notice and comment that concludes on September 28, 2023. Treasury also published a Fact Sheet that provides additional information on the proposed details and scope of the outbound investment prohibitions and notification requirements, which will likely not be finalized until 2024 sometime after Treasury has published draft regulations and gathered another round of public comments.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Defense (“DoD”) issued a memorandum explaining new requirements in its efforts to “Counter[] Unwanted Foreign Influence in Department-Funded Research at Institutions of Higher Education” (the “Memorandum”). The Memorandum discusses DoD’s new processes to review proposals from higher education institutions for fundamental research opportunities, with a focus on security threats posed by China, Russia, and other malign actors.

On March 22, 2023, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a proposed rule that would amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to require certain contractors to provide export authorizations to the Defense Authorization Management Agency (DCMA).

On March 2, 2023, two proclamations were published to the Federal Register announcing additional tariffs on imports into the United States of certain Russian products.

Last week the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and U.S. Department of Commerce announced a new Disruptive Technology Strike Force (the “DIS-TECH Strike Force”). The Strike Force will bring together experts throughout government – including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), and 14 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in 12 metropolitan regions across the country – to target illicit actors, strengthen supply chains, and protect critical technological assets from being acquired or used by nation-state adversaries. The DIS-TECH Strike Force will be co-led by DOJ’s National Security Division (“NSD”) and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”).

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In a Final Rule to be published tomorrow, the State Department has implemented the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (the 2015 Act) by increasing various civil penalties for violations within its jurisdiction including for export control violations and such administrative actions as Program Fraud and Byrd Amendment:

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President Obama's new course in U.S. Cuba Policy took shape yesterday with the release of the final rules amending the Cuban Assets Control Regulations (CACR) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), providing industry with the new "rules of the road" when conducting transactions in or with Cuba. 

Having given the ceasefire agreement one week to work, the United States and European Union issued comprehensive expanded sanctions on September 12, 2014. These coordinated measures expand sectoral sanctions to the Russian oil and defense sectors, expand export prohibitions, reduce the allowable credit period, target participation in oil exploration within Russia, and designate dozens of new persons. Each of these changes is discussed below.

The EU REACH legislation establishes an integrated system for the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemical substances. It requires all companies (including US-based companies) which manufacture in, or import chemical substances into, the EU in quantities of one ton or more per year to register them with the European Chemicals Agency in Helsinki, Finland.