On August 14, 2023, the US State Department, the Labor Department, and the Commerce Department issued a business advisory (“Business Advisory”) highlighting key risks for companies operating in South Sudan. While it does not impose new legal obligations on companies, the Business Advisory highlights the fact that list-based sanctions remain in force targeting certain South Sudanese persons including designations under the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, and…
On June 16, 2023, the US Commerce Department published a final rule (“Final Rule”), implementing President Biden’s 2021 Executive Order 14034 on “Protecting Americans’ Sensitive Data from Foreign Adversaries,” to amend the Commerce Department’s “Securing the Information and Communications Technology Supply Chain” regulations, 15 C.F.R. Part 7 (“ICTS Regulations”). The amendments mainly relate to connected software applications. The Final Rule was issued in response to comments received to a notice of proposed rulemaking (“NPRM”) issued…
On March 30, 2023, the White House and US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) announced human rights and export control measures that underscore the US Government’s focus on human rights as a matter of foreign policy. The White House announcement is available here. The BIS announcement is available here. The White also issued a Fact Sheet that includes these announcements and other sanctions and export control provisions. White House: Export Controls…
On January 5, 2023, President Biden signed the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act into law. This law seeks to deter the theft of US intellectual property by non-US actors by threatening to impose economic sanctions on those engaged in trade secrets theft. This law adds to existing measures available under US law, such as criminal prosecution, civil lawsuits, and/or designation to a US restricted parties list such as the Entity List (maintained by the US…