The European Commission this week released a proposal that it said will allow Northern Ireland businesses to use U.K. tariff rate quotas for imports from third countries of various agri-food products. The commission said the “aim” of the proposal is to ensure Northern Ireland businesses can use the TRQs for commodities originating from the rest of the world, “such as New Zealand lamb.” The solution was negotiated by the EU and the U.K. as part of the Windsor Framework, the agreement signed between the two sides on post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland (see 2302270051).
Members of the National Retail Federation are seeing a rise in freight rates and ocean carrier transportation costs and want to make sure that those new fees and surcharges "actually cover real costs and are not intended for profit," Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president of supply chain and customs policy, told Congress this week.
Two House committee chairs have urged the Biden administration to place export restrictions and sanctions on four “highly troubling” Chinese companies that are slated to provide software and other technology to a planned electric vehicle battery factory in the U.S.
The Biden administration’s proposal to impose new restrictions on U.S. investment in certain Chinese technology sectors is a complex undertaking that will be difficult to implement, a former Treasury Department official said on Jan. 30.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeing fewer unintended impacts from its most recent October 2023 chip controls compared with the initial set of rules released in 2022, a BIS official said this week. The official also said BIS is working to identify certain companies, including potentially Chinese chip making facilities, that are restricted from receiving sensitive U.S. chip manufacturing equipment, which could help exporters more easily do due diligence on their customers and supply chain partners.
Rick Sofield, former partner at Vinson & Elkins, joined Debevoise & Plimpton as co-head of the national security practice based in Washington, D.C., the firm announced. Sofield will center his practice on security reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and other cross-border transactions and investments. Sofield previously was director of the Foreign Investment Review Staff for DOJ's National Security Division.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., said Jan. 26 that he will approve granting the request from Turkey to the U.S. for the purchase of F-16 fighter jets, following that country’s approval of Sweden’s accession to NATO.
Several lawmakers urged the Biden administration to reimpose sanctions on Venezuela after the country’s supreme court barred opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from this year’s presidential election.
Sens. Mike Braun, R-Ind., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., on Jan. 25 introduced a bill aimed at improving the tracking of foreign investment in U.S. farmland.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has been experiencing delays in semiconductor-related export license applications due to a higher number of disagreements with the other agencies that also review those licenses, a senior BIS official said this week.