On April 9, 2021, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a final rule (“Final Rule”) in the Federal Register to add seven Chinese parties (together, the “Designees”) to the Entity List. The Final Rule took effect on April 8, 2021. According to the Final Rule and the Commerce Department’s press release, the Designees were added to the Entity List because they have procured US-origin items for use in building supercomputers that are used to support…
Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry announced that on 9 April 2021, Singapore deposited its instrument of ratification with the Secretary-General of ASEAN and became the first country to complete the official process for ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement. It is understood that China, Japan and Thailand completed their domestic procedures to approve RCEP, but apparently have not deposited their instruments of ratification with ASEAN. RCEP is the world’s largest free trade agreement and…
On 22 March 2021, the EU imposed restrictive measures on eleven individuals and four entities in relation to alleged human rights violations, including: four individuals and one company with links to the large-scale arbitrary detentions of Uyghurs in Xinjiang;two individuals and one company in the DPRK, responsible for implementing repressive security policies and other human rights violations;two officials in Libya and the armed Libyan militia, responsible for serious human rights abuses including extrajudicial killings;two Russian individuals involved in violations of LGBTI…
On 22 March 2021, the UK Government added four individuals and one entity to the Global Human Rights financial sanctions regime, in relation to alleged human rights violations taking place in Xinjiang, China. Four Chinese government officials and a Xinjiang security body have been added to the UK sanctions list and to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation’s consolidated list of financial sanctions targets. These measures were announced in coordination with Canada and the United States, and in parallel…
Effective March 22, 2021, Canada has imposed new sanctions against four Chinese officials and a Chinese entity under the newly enacted Special Economic Measures (People’s Republic of China) Regulations (the “Regulations”), in response to the alleged human rights situation in Xinjiang. Becoming a listed person under the Regulations has two noteworthy consequences. First, listed persons who are individuals are considered inadmissible to Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Second, the Regulations effectively impose an asset freeze…
On March 11, 2021, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice [Docket Number USTR–2021–0001; Dispute Number DS597] requesting comments on Hong Kong, China’s request for the establishment of a dispute settlement panel under the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO Agreement) [WTO Document WT/DS597/5]. USTR invites written comments concerning the issues raised in this dispute. All submissions must be in English and sent electronically…
[The first paragraph has been updated from an earlier blog to reflect the publication of this notice in the Federal Register.] On March 10, 2021, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice (that was previously posted on the USTR website) that announces the USTR’s determination to further extend exclusions from the sec. 301 tariffs for 99 medical-care and similar products needed to address the COVID-19 pandemic.…
On March 5, 2021, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) posted on its website an advance copy of a notice to be published in the Federal Register that announces the USTR’s determination to further extend exclusions from the sec. 301 tariffs for 99 medical-care and similar products needed to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Those extensions were published in the Federal Register on December 29, 2020 (See 85 FR 85831) The new extensions…
Baker McKenzie’s Global Supply Chain Compliance Blog recently published a post entitled, “UK, US and Canadian Governments Announce New Measures Over Alleged Xinjiang, China Human Rights Concerns”. The new blog post can be found here. The post outlines recent measures introduced by the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada in response to the alleged human rights violations taking place in Xinjian, China. The new measures implemented by these governments include enhanced due diligence requirements…
On January 15, 2021, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published an interim final rule (“Rule”) amending various provisions of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement certain provisions of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (ECRA). Among other things further outlined below, the Rule imposes new restrictions on specific activities of US persons. By way of brief background, the EAR generally controls transactions involving US origin items (i.e., goods, software, technology) regardless of whether…