Global Trade & Foreign Policy Insights

On June 21, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s (Treasury) Office of Investment Security released proposed language for the Outbound Investment Security Program (hereafter, the Proposed Rule).

On February 28, President Biden issued a major new executive order. The E.O. directs the Attorney General to issue regulations within 180 days that prohibit or restrict U.S. persons from engaging in transactions with “countries of concern” involving the transfer of Americans’ bulk sensitive data or U.S. government-related data. 

On December 4, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) published its proposed interpretation of the statutory definition of “foreign entity of concern” (FEOC) in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).

The United States temporarily eased select sanctions related to Venezuela’s oil sector on October 18, 2023, after Maduro’s government and the opposition reached an agreement on electoral guarantees for an internationally monitored vote in the second half of 2024.

Earlier this month, on August 9, 2023, the Biden administration issued its long-awaited Executive Order (the E.O.) announcing new restrictions on the ability of U.S. persons to invest in Chinese companies developing certain types of sensitive technologies and products. The new E.O., titled “Addressing United States Investments in Certain National Security Technologies and Products in Countries of Concern,” directs the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) to issue regulations that will either prohibit or require notification of outbound investments in Chinese companies undertaking identified activities relating to certain products and technologies in the following three industry sectors: (1) semiconductors and microelectronics, (2) quantum information technologies, and (3) artificial intelligence.