Treasury Nominee Wants to Review Outbound Investment Rule
Deputy Treasury Secretary nominee Michael Faulkender said March 6 he wants to study whether changes should be made to the Biden administration’s October 2024 rule restricting outbound investment in China (see 2410280043).
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During a hearing on his nomination, Faulkender said the rule “conceptually … makes sense to me” but that if confirmed, he would look at whether it should be applied to additional sectors beyond artificial intelligence, quantum technology and semiconductors. He also wants to examine whether the compliance regime “makes sense” and whether the program needs more personnel.
“My understanding is we have three employees at Treasury that are focused on this right now but may need to expand it,” he testified before the Senate Finance Committee in response to questioning from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev. “So it's very early in the program, and so I don’t want to say that exactly as it was initially structured is ideal. Instead, I’ll commit to you to continue investigating it as it's going into its implementation stage and happy to work with your office to see what improvements we can make.”
A memo the White House issued Feb. 21 calls on U.S. agencies to consider expanding existing outbound investment restrictions against China (see 2502240051).
Faulkender also testified that the Treasury Department continues to look for "new targets" for sanctions as part of the Trump administration's “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. Faulkender said he would work “tirelessly” to support the pressure campaign.
In February, President Donald Trump ordered U.S. agencies to increase sanctions against Iran (see 2502050020). Since then, the U.S. has sanctioned a network moving Iranian oil to China, as well as more than 30 people, entities and ships helping to sell and move Iranian petroleum products (see 2502060014 and 2502240019).