On May 23, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) issued a Federal Register notice soliciting public comment on the Trump administration’s plans to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement...more
The Trump administration released a report to Congress on March 1, 2017 outlining details of the president’s “America First” trade policy. The report represents a drastic shift in the U.S. approach to global trade practices...more
Only a week into his presidency, President Trump has taken steps to upend the United States’ paradigm on international trade. Behind an “America First” agenda, he is seeking to reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing, renegotiate key...more
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final rule on November 29, 2016, establishing requirements for the electronic filing of import entries of FDA-regulated products. Once the rule takes effect, the entries must be...more
Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States of America was as unexpected in the polls as the United Kingdom’s vote to embrace Brexit. Now Democrats and Republicans alike are trying to assess how Mr. Trump, a...more
Effective October 17, 2016, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) have expanded the scope and nature of transactions...more
Anticipation among importers is growing as U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) prepares to amend its regulations to implement Congress’ repeal of an 85-year-old loophole that, until the Trade Facilitation and Trade...more
Substantive changes to IP protection in the recently signed Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (the Act) may be advantageous to U.S. IP owners. However, many of the Act's enforcement tools still need to be...more
U.S.-Iranian relations took a major step forward on January 16, 2016, with the arrival of “Implementation Day” under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Although this may present new business opportunities in...more
With the world powers set to resume meetings in Vienna this week, the question on every U.S. business person’s lips is: will this be the end of sanction on Iran? Despite reports that neither side can afford to walk away...more
On Friday, the White House issued new sanctions against Russia in response to Russian troop advances in eastern Ukraine that helped turn the tide of the conflict. However, a fragile truce was struck a week ago between...more
Despite the imposition of sanctions by the U.S. and EU since March, Russia had not retaliated economically until imposing the August 7 import ban on meat, fish, vegetables and dairy products from the U.S., EU, Canada,...more
Following a steady stream of sanctions by the U.S. and EU, Russia finally retaliated by imposing a ban on food imports. The one-year ban instituted on August 7, 2014, prohibits the importation into Russia of meat, fish,...more
The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) hosted its annual update conference from July 29-31 in Washington, DC. Attendance was strong as always, and there was plenty to discuss about the export...more
President Obama announced yesterday the creation of the new Sectoral Sanctions Identification List (“SSI List”) issued pursuant the Russian sanctions program and the addition of two Russian energy companies and two Russian...more
7/18/2014
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Barack Obama ,
EU ,
Executive Orders ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Russia ,
Sanctions ,
SDN List ,
SSI List ,
UK
After the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) was signed last November by Iran and the P5+1 nations, many U.S. companies asked whether they could reestablish business relationships with Iran. That was a fair question, but...more
Last week French bank BNP Paribas (BNPP) became the latest financial institution to be penalized for violating the OFAC sanctions programs. BNPP was accused of processing thousands of transactions through U.S. banks for...more
Method of Payment. If you’re the party providing the goods or services under the agreement, you want to be sure you get the consideration you bargained for. Any fool knows that, but international contracts can make...more
Cross-border agreements come in all shapes and sizes, from manufacturing agreements to joint ventures, employment contracts to merger agreements. Each type has its own quirks, but we can boil down the most common legal issues...more
5/28/2014
/ Choice-of-Law ,
Commercial Contracts ,
Contract Negotiations ,
Cross-Border ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Dispute Resolution ,
Employment Contract ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Joint Venture ,
Legal Writing ,
Merger Agreements ,
Young Lawyers
The fact that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been on China’s radar for bribery is nothing new – the Chinese authorities instituted an investigation against the company in July 2013. What is new is that GSK’s former Vice President...more
Benjamin Franklin once said that no nation was ever ruined by trade. While that may be true, those of us in the private sector have seen our kind ruined by failures in trade law compliance far too often. Let’s be honest:...more
Today, the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine held referundums on whether to declare independence from the rest of the country. The U.S. and EU view the referendums as heavily influenced by Russia and contrary to...more
The U.S., the EU, Ukraine and Russia met in Geneva on Thursday, April 17 and hammered out a deal to de-escalate tensions in eastern Ukraine. While this development is welcome news, U.S. companies should not celebrate just...more