President Trump has ended the broad U.S. sanctions embargo on Syria, but sanctions against certain designated targets remain in place. As of July 1, 2025, Executive Order 14312: Rescinds the Treasury Department’s Office of...more
The Trump administration is pursuing additional national security investigations that will likely lead to tariffs on imports of semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment (“SME”), and derivative articles,...more
An update to our ongoing insights into the Trump administration’s broad tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, plus targeted tariffs on key commodities and processed products worldwide. Until at least April 2, it...more
On February 21, 2025, a Presidential Memorandum, “America First Investment Policy” (the “Memorandum”), announced planned changes to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) and outbound investment...more
The Commerce Department has issued a rule that increases export controls on AI-related items. The rule: Most of the restrictions are scheduled to take effect on May 15, 2025, although some do not come into effect until...more
The Department of Justice has finalized prohibitions and restrictions on cross-border transfers of certain data to China and other “Countries of Concern” (as defined below). It seeks to address what is, in the U.S....more
1/21/2025
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
China ,
Cuba ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
International Data Transfers ,
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) ,
Iran ,
National Security ,
Personal Data ,
Russia
China has issued the Regulation on Export Control of Dual-Use Items (the “Regulation”), which will take effect on December 1, 2024. The Regulation aims to provide clearer guidance for export control authorities’ law...more
The U.S. Department of the Treasury proposed regulations on June 21, 2024, that would prohibit certain outbound investments by U.S. persons in Chinese companies focused on semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum...more
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has taken another significant step in transforming from a limited jurisdiction interagency committee that primarily reviewed voluntary filings into a body with...more
The Biden administration has issued a long-awaited executive order authorizing regulation of U.S. investments in Chinese semiconductor, quantum computing and AI companies. The Treasury Department published a corresponding...more
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) reportedly observed limits on its authority in a recent case to examine and potentially disturb foreign investment transactions for national security reasons....more
U.S. companies with foreign ownership face a June 30 deadline to respond to a survey of foreign investment in the United States. The U.S. government is conducting the 2022 Benchmark Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the...more
On April 19, 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) imposed a $300 million civil penalty on Seagate Technology LLC, a U.S. supplier of data-storage products. BIS found that...more
On October 7, 2022, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry Security (“BIS”) released new export control regulations (the “New Regulations”) that intensify and complicate U.S. and non-U.S. companies’ international...more
The President has issued the first executive order providing formal direction to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) on the risks that it should consider in its examination of foreign investment...more
This guidance does not constitute legal advice. To the extent that you have any questions arising out of the guidance, please speak to a member of the Orrick team who will be happy to assist. The invasion of Ukraine by...more
5/11/2022
/ Blocked Person ,
Blocking Sanctions ,
Economic Sanctions ,
EU ,
Foreign Bank Accounts ,
Foreign Investment ,
International Tax Issues ,
National Security ,
Russia ,
Technology Sector ,
UK
The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) has adjusted U.S. export controls in ways that dramatically limit unlicensed supply to Russia or Belarus of many types of software with encryption...more
Every week, scores of U.S. companies are sold to foreign investors or execute equity financing transactions involving foreign investors. Parties to these transactions must assess whether they are legally required to file...more
On October 21, 2021, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) published a rule that will restrict some exports, reexports, and other overseas transfers of equipment, software, and technology...more
On December 18, 2020, the Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) announced the addition of 77 new entities, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (“SMIC”), to the Entity List. ...more
2/12/2021
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
China ,
Entity List ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
Licensing Rules ,
Military End Use ,
National Security ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Semiconductors
On January 5, 2021, President Trump issued Executive Order 13971 (the “Executive Order”) that provides for prohibitions on U.S. persons engaging in transactions with persons that develop or control any of the following eight...more
1/11/2021
/ China ,
Data Collection ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Policy ,
Mobile Apps ,
National Security ,
Personal Data ,
Popular ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
Social Media ,
Software ,
Trump Administration
Late last week, a Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an order granting a motion for a nationwide preliminary injunction forbidding implementation of sanctions against...more
9/21/2020
/ China ,
Data Collection ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Executive Orders ,
First Amendment ,
Mobile Apps ,
National Security ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Social Media ,
TikTok ,
Trump Administration
Last week, the Department of Commerce took steps to implement sanctions targeting China’s mobile applications WeChat, owned by Tencent Holdings Ltd. (“WeChat Sanctions”), and TikTok, owned by ByteDance Ltd. (“ByteDance”)...more
As anticipated in our prior alert, yesterday the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) published a final rule that ties CFIUS’s mandatory filing requirement for certain “critical technology”...more
9/16/2020
/ CFIUS ,
Covered Transactions ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Controls ,
Filing Requirements ,
FIRRMA ,
Foreign Investment ,
ITAR ,
National Security ,
Regulatory Requirements
The U.S. government is expanding international trade restraints against Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (“Huawei”) and its affiliates in an effort to further restrict Huawei’s access to U.S. technologies.....more
8/20/2020
/ Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
China ,
Cybersecurity ,
Entity List ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Controls ,
Foreign Adversaries ,
Foreign Policy ,
General Licenses ,
Huawei ,
National Security ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
Supply Chain ,
Telecommunications ,
Trump Administration