On 2 April 2025, President Trump announced a series of “reciprocal” tariffs on US imports from all countries. The tariffs apply at different rates by country, starting at a baseline of 10% and reaching as high as 50%....more
On 24 March 2025, the White House issued an Executive Order threatening to impose a 25% tariff on all goods imported into the United States from any country that imports Venezuelan oil directly or indirectly through third...more
On 21 February 2025, President Donald J. Trump signaled his administration’s approach to foreign investment policy with a presidential memorandum, “America First Investment Policy” (The Policy). Among the most significant...more
Introduction - On 28 October 2024, the US Treasury Department issued a Final Rule implementing the Outbound Investment Program (OIP) under Executive Order 14105, which safeguards US national security by limiting investments...more
On 28 October, US Treasury issued new rules that restrict investment in Chinese development of semiconductors, quantum computing and AI (Covered Activity). Taking effect on 2 January 2025, the new rules are based on findings...more
On 21 June 2024, the Office of Investment Security of the US Department of the Treasury (Treasury) issued proposed regulations to implement President Biden’s August 2023 Executive Order on Addressing United States Investments...more
6/27/2024
/ CFIUS ,
China ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Investment ,
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) ,
Investment ,
National Security ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Supply Chain ,
U.S. Treasury
On 15 April 2024, the Treasury Department’s Office of Investment Security published a Proposed Rule to revise the regulations governing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS or the Committee). The...more
On 28 February 2024, President Biden issued Executive Order 14117 of February 28, 2024, Preventing Access to Americans’ Bulk Sensitive Personal Data and United States Government-Related Data by Countries of Concern (EO) aimed...more
3/25/2024
/ Biden Administration ,
Data Collection ,
Data Storage ,
Data Transfers ,
Data-Sharing ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Executive Orders ,
Foreign Entities ,
International Data Transfers ,
Personal Data ,
Regulatory Oversight
Driven by concerns around increasing sanctions evasion activities by Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, the US Government is stepping up enforcement and warning companies in the extended cargo and shipping supply chain to...more
On 17 October 2023, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued two new Interim Final Rules (collectively, the Updated Rule) that significantly revise and expand controls under the US Export...more
10/30/2023
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) ,
ECCNs ,
End-Users ,
Entity List ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
National Security ,
Semiconductors ,
U.S. Commerce Department
For the first time, on 12 October 2023, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on vessels and their owners for breaching the price cap on seaborne Russian crude oil...more
The United States eased certain economic sanctions against Venezuela on 18 October 2023 in response to the signing of an electoral roadmap agreement between the Maduro regime and Venezuela’s Unitary Platform. Under this...more
On 9 August 2023, President Biden issued a long anticipated executive order imposing certain limitations, reporting requirements, and prohibitions on outbound investment from the United States into certain sensitive industry...more
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS or the Committee) recently proposed expanding the scope of its jurisdiction to review real estate transactions to add over 200,000 square miles of land...more
In a set of actions in coordination with G7 allies, US and UK export control authorities recently announced significant escalations of sanctions and export controls against Russia and Belarus. These actions indicate continued...more
A common approach in dealing with potential violations of the US export control laws is to undertake a voluntary disclosure to the regulators and thereby benefit from long-standing policies that favor such disclosure by...more
On 7 October 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued two Interim Final Rules (collectively, The Rule) that significantly enhance U.S. export controls as applied to advanced...more
On 8 May 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a Determination pursuant to Executive Order (EO) 14071 (6 April 2022) (the Determination) that prohibits the export,...more
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent revelations of alleged atrocities in territories previously controlled by Russia have had a global impact. Dozens of foreign countries (States) have imposed a wide variety of...more
4/20/2022
/ Blocking Sanctions ,
Economic Sanctions ,
EU ,
Financial Transactions ,
Foreign Investment ,
Foreign Policy ,
Popular ,
Russia ,
SDN List ,
Trade Restrictions ,
UK ,
Ukraine
On 6 April 2022, the United States imposed a new round of sanctions on Russia in response to its continued actions in Ukraine. K&L Gates covered previous rounds of sanctions in alerts on 24 February, 25 February, 15 March,...more
4/8/2022
/ Attorney General ,
Banks ,
Biden Administration ,
Blocking Sanctions ,
Economic Sanctions ,
EU ,
Executive Orders ,
Financial Institutions ,
G7 ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Russia ,
Ukraine
As an update to our previous alerts of 24 February, 25 February, and 15 March, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on 24 March announced an additional round of sanctions on Russia—one...more
As an update to K&L Gates’ previous alerts of 24 February and 25 February, U.S. President Joe Biden issued two executive orders (EOs) last week imposing additional sanctions against Russia. The first order, EO 14066, issued...more
3/16/2022
/ Belarus ,
Biden Administration ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Energy Sector ,
Executive Orders ,
Export Administration Regulations (EAR) ,
Export Controls ,
Foreign Investment ,
Foreign Policy ,
Imports ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Trade Restrictions
As an update to K&L Gates’ previous alert on 24 February, U.S. President Joe Biden announced sanctions and export controls against Russia that are in addition to those imposed on the 21st and 22nd of February. This escalation...more
This week, the United States imposed new economic sanctions in response to efforts by the Russian Federation to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. As discussed herein, they consist of: (1) an...more
2/25/2022
/ Blocking Sanctions ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Embargo ,
Export Controls ,
Foreign Policy ,
General Licenses ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Pipelines ,
Russia ,
SDN List ,
Sovereign Debt ,
Ukraine
On 10 June 2021, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress reviewed and approved the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law (the AFSL), which took effect on the same day. The AFSL was enacted within two months and without...more