An upcoming fast-track process for certain deals filed with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. could apply to a broad range of American allies and transactions, although key questions remain about what foreign investors will need to do to qualify, law firms said this month.

The U.K. should change its foreign investment screening process to better support British technology firms and shouldn't hurry to agree to increased U.S. restrictions against China, the U.K. Parliament was told last week.

The Treasury Department issued a new general license last week that it said gives “immediate” sanctions relief to Syria, “effectively lifting sanctions” on the country in the aftermath of last year’s fall of the Bashar Assad regime.

The U.S. is continuing to push Malaysia to strengthen its guardrails around sensitive American technologies at risk of being diverted to China, a top Malaysian trade official said this week. He also acknowledged that Malaysia and other Asian countries could soon be pressured to choose between either partnering economically with Washington or Beijing.

Beijing this week threatened to penalize any person or company that complies with new export control guidance from the Bureau of Industry and Security about advanced Huawei chips, saying the guidance constitutes “discriminatory restrictive measures against Chinese companies.”

Although the Bureau of Industry and Security announced last week that it won’t be enforcing the Biden-era AI diffusion rule, companies should reassess their due diligence practices to prepare for a replacement rule and make sure they’re complying with existing chip controls, law firms said, which they expect the Trump administration to aggressively enforce.

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The EU officially approved a new Russia sanctions package this week, targeting hundreds of ships, people and entities while adding new items to its export control list.

Members of a U.S. commission on China said they approved of the Trump administration’s AI chip agreement with the United Arab Emirates last week, but they also stressed that the deal should have stringent security guardrails in place to verify that any U.S. chips aren’t being sent on to Beijing.

The White House defended its new AI partnership framework with the United Arab Emirates, saying in a statement late May 16 that the agreement “will help ensure the global AI ecosystem will be built with American chips and use American models, all while guaranteeing significant UAE investments into the United States.”