Christian Davis Quoted in Caijing on Potential Use of IEEPA, Expansion of CFIUS Authority to Restrict Chinese Investment

Akin Gump international trade partner Christian Davis was quoted by Caijing magazine [财经], a business-oriented, Chinese-language biweekly, for its article “Trump considers launching emergency bill to expand restrictions on investment by China in sensitive areas” [特朗普考虑启动紧急法案 扩大限制中方敏感领域投资权力].

According to the article, the Trump administration is looking at measures to limit Chinese investment in the U.S., including a bill involving the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an interagency body that reviews foreign investments in U.S. businesses to identify and address U.S. national security concerns.

Davis, whose practice focuses on U.S. law and policy affecting international trade and business, said, “The CFIUS legislation will need to pass through both houses of Congress before Trump can sign it into law. Even then, the legislation may not contain all of the restrictions targeting China that the Trump administration may want to impose. The emergency law [the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA] grants the President extensive powers to restrict transactions; for example, it can restrict Chinese investment in certain designated industries. Consequently, the U.S. government could use both [IEEPA] and a new CFIUS law to regulate Chinese investment in the U.S.”