The Federal Maritime Commission hired Phillip "Chris" Hughey as general counsel, where he will provide legal advice and recommendations to the FMC chair and commissioners on regulatory and policy matters, the commission announced Nov. 7. Hughey has previously served as the commission’s deputy general counsel and most recently worked as a foreign service officer with the State Department. Katia Kroutil had been serving as the commission’s acting general counsel and is now listed on the FMC’s website as acting assistant general counsel for general law and regulation.
The International Trade Commission, which is tasked with measuring the economic impact of the USMCA's stringent auto rules of origin, heard from auto industry players in the U.S. and Mexico that satisfying the labor value content audits is next-to-impossible.
The State Department approved two potential military sales, to Australia and Finland, worth more than $6.8 billion combined, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Nov. 1.
The State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls recently posted a name change update for the U.K. government and waived the requirement for amendments to change approved license authorizations because of the “volume” of authorizations requiring amendments to reflect the change, DDTC said. The U.K. government's entity name “Her Majesty the Queen” was changed to “His Majesty the King.” Currently approved authorizations identifying “Her Majesty the Queen” will not require an amendment to reflect the change, DDTC said, but new authorizations should be updated.
The Center for a New American Security this week launched a Task Force on Biotechnology and American Competitiveness, which will convene government officials with experts from industry and academia to “respond to critical challenges at the nexus of U.S. national security and biotechnology,” CNAS said in an emailed news release. The group will recommend “actionable recommendations” to improve American competitiveness in the biotechnology landscape, including synthetic biology, pharmaceuticals and genomic editing. Michael Chertoff, former U.S. secretary of homeland security, chairs the task force; Martijn Rasser, CNAS Technology and National Security Program director, is the executive director of the Task Force. CNAS said it will announce the groups’ members “at a later date.”
The U.S. should take action against TikTok to prevent sensitive U.S. personal data from being collected by the app’s Chinese owner, said Brendan Carr, one of five commissioners on the Federal Communications Commission. “I don’t believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban," Carr told Axios, according to a Nov. 1 report by the news outlet. Carr added that there isn't "a world in which you could come up with sufficient protection on the data that you could have sufficient confidence that it’s not finding its way back into the hands of the [Chinese Communist Party]."
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will not open a portal for comments about the economic impact of Section 301 tariffs until Nov. 15 (see 2210120051), but it has now posted the questionnaire, which has a dozen pages of questions, and will allow commenters to target specific Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes.
U.S.-based TuSimple Holdings, which provides self-driving truck and autonomous freight shipping technology, is being investigated for whether it illegally transferred technology to a Chinese startup, The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 30. The U.S. company is being probed by the FBI, the SEC and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which are examining its “relationship” with Hydron, the report said. Hydron is an autonomous truck startup led by one of TuSimple’s co-founders. The agencies are examining whether TuSimple shared with Hydron “intellectual property developed in the U.S.” and whether that “defrauded TuSimple investors by sending valuable technology to an overseas adversary,” the report said.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. should conduct a review of Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said on Twitter. CFIUS should investigate the “national security implications” of the deal, Murphy said Oct. 31, specifically Saudi Arabia’s role in the acquisition. Bloomberg recently reported (see 2210210018) that CFIUS could exercise its jurisdiction over the deal due to the “presence of foreign investors in Musk’s consortium,” which includes Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia.
DOJ's recent moves charging 11 individuals and various corporate entities for their roles in schemes to evade U.S. sanctions and export controls on Russia signal the government's continuing efforts to "aggressively enforce" restrictions on Russia, law firm Paul Weiss said in an analysis posted online Oct. 26. As a result, multilateral corporations with international supply chains need to ramp up compliance measures and be aware that international cooperation has expanded the reach of U.S. sanctions enforcement, the firm said.