Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2665 actions· ✨ 90 recent

Guyana's National Assembly passed Act No. 18 of 2021 on 29 December 2021; it received presidential assent and was published in the Extraordinary Official Gazette on 31 December 2021. The Act establishes mandatory local-content obligations for all operators, contractors, and subcontractors engaged in petroleum operations in Guyana, defining a "Guyanese company" (≥51% Guyanese-owned, ≥75% Guyanese senior management, ≥90% other staff) and reserving 40 First Schedule categories of goods and services exclusively for Guyanese nationals and companies. All entities in the petroleum value chain must register with the Local Content Secretariat and submit annual local-content plans and compliance reports to the Minister of Natural Resources.

FinCEN amended 31 CFR Part 1010 to remove civil penalty language that had become obsolete following the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (AJCA). The AJCA restructured FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) penalties, raising the maximum for willful violations beyond what the pre-existing regulation text authorised, creating an inconsistency between statute and regulation. The final rule is administrative in nature: it deletes superseded penalty provisions and aligns regulatory text with the statutory penalty structure already in force since 2004, imposing no new obligations on FBAR filers.

FinCEN issued a final rule (86 FR 62914, effective 15 November 2021) amending 31 CFR 1010.370 to align its Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) regulations with statutory amendments to 31 U.S.C. 5326 (Bank Secrecy Act). The principal change extends GTO authority to cover nonfinancial trades or businesses in addition to domestic financial institutions — broadening the pool of entities that FinCEN can subject to heightened transaction-reporting and recordkeeping requirements in a designated geographic area. The rule also updates the notification procedure (directing GTOs to chief executive officers) to conform to the amended statute. No new GTO was issued by this rule; it is a framework update enabling future GTO issuance to a wider class of obligees.

The Bahraini Council of Ministers, chaired by HRH Crown Prince and Prime Minister Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and issued pursuant to directives of HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, launched the five-pillar Economic Recovery Plan on 31 October 2021 as the government's post-COVID-19 structural-adjustment and growth framework through 2024–2030. The plan catalyses a USD 30 billion strategic-projects pipeline, delivers six new priority-sector strategies (oil and gas, tourism, logistics, financial services, telecommunications/ICT, manufacturing), targets 20,000 new Bahraini jobs and 10,000 annual training slots, and mandates fiscal balance by 2024 including the doubling of VAT from 5% to 10% effective 1 January 2022 under Royal Decree 33/2021. It is the foundational parent framework for all subsequent Bahraini sectoral decrees and investment decisions through 2030, and is materially relevant to the global non-Chinese aluminium supply chain through Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the world's largest non-Chinese primary aluminium smelters at approximately 1.5 million tonnes per annum.

The Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国个人信息保护法 — PIPL) was adopted at the 30th meeting of the 13th NPC Standing Committee on 20 August 2021 and entered into force on 1 November 2021, constituting the third and final pillar of China's cybersecurity and data-governance regulatory trinity alongside the Cybersecurity Law (2016) and the Data Security Law (2021). The PIPL is China's comprehensive personal-information statute establishing consent-based and necessity-based legal bases for PI processing, a tiered cross-border personal-data transfer regime (CAC security assessment / PI protection certification / Standard Contractual Clauses), extraterritorial application (Art. 3) to non-Chinese controllers offering services to or analysing the behaviour of PRC residents, and a heightened protection regime for sensitive personal information and data of minors under 14. It mandates data-protection impact assessments, personal-information-protection-officer obligations at designated handlers, breach notification, and a full suite of data-subject rights including access, rectification, deletion, portability, objection, and automated- decision-making opt-out. Article 53 requires overseas controllers to establish a domestic representative or designated entity in China, providing a domestic enforcement counterparty.

The Bureau of Industry and Security amended the Export Administration Regulations by adding six Russian technology entities to the Entity List, all designated consistent with Executive Order 14024 on blocking property associated with harmful foreign activities of the Russian government. The designated entities operate in Russia's technology sector and have been determined to support Russian intelligence services, including notable cybersecurity firms and defense-innovation institutions. All items subject to the EAR require a BIS licence for export, reexport, or transfer to these parties, subject to a presumption-of-denial review policy with no licence exceptions available. The rule also corrects an existing FSB entry to reference updated General Licence No. 1B.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added four Burma-based entities to the Entity List effective July 6, 2021 under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), citing their support for the Myanmar State Administration Council (SAC) military that seized power on February 1, 2021. The listing covers King Royal Technologies Co., Ltd. (satellite communications services for the Burmese military) and three Wanbao-affiliated copper mining companies (Myanmar Wanbao Mining Copper Ltd., Myanmar Yang Tse Copper Ltd., and Wanbao Mining Ltd.) that maintain revenue-sharing arrangements with Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL), a military conglomerate that funds Burma's Ministry of Defence. All four entities face a presumption-of-denial license policy with no exceptions permitted for any items subject to the EAR.

The Data Security Law of the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国数据安全法) was adopted at the 29th meeting of the 13th NPC Standing Committee on 10 June 2021 and entered into force on 1 September 2021, constituting the second pillar of China's cybersecurity and data-governance regulatory trinity alongside the Cybersecurity Law (2016) and the Personal Information Protection Law (2021). The DSL establishes a tiered data-classification regime — "important data" and "national core data" — with escalating security obligations including risk assessment, risk monitoring, breach reporting, and classified-protection requirements for data handlers. It introduces a data-export security review for "important data" generated or collected within China, the statutory parent authority operationalised by the 2024 CAC Cross-Border Data Flow Provisions, and enacts a §36 blocking statute prohibiting Chinese organisations and individuals from transferring data stored in China to foreign judicial or law-enforcement authorities without prior PRC government approval.

OFAC published a final rule (86 FR 26661) amending the Narcotics Trafficking Sanctions Regulations (31 CFR Part 536) and the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations (31 CFR Part 598) to add or update four categories of general licenses. The amendments authorise payments for legal services from non-US or public funds, allow personal maintenance transactions for incarcerated Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers (SDNTs), permit upkeep of blocked tangible property, and expand emergency medical services authorisation to cover payment as well as provision of care. The rule takes effect on the same day as publication and applies to all persons designated under either the NTSR or FNKSR programmes globally.

Denmark's foundational cross-sector horizontal FDI screening statute. Lov nr 842 of 10 May 2021 — investeringsscreeningsloven — was adopted by the Folketing on 4 May 2021, signed on 10 May 2021, and entered into force on 1 July 2021 (with application to transactions implemented from 1 September 2021). The Act is administered by Erhvervsstyrelsen (Danish Business Authority) and combines (i) a mandatory pre-closing authorisation regime for foreign investments in "particularly sensitive sectors" — defence, dual-use products, IT-security functions/services, critical technology, critical infrastructure — triggered at 10% ownership / voting rights or equivalent control, with (ii) a voluntary notification scheme (typically engaged at 25%+) for foreign investments and special economic agreements in other sectors. Enforcement runs through blocking orders, unwinding orders, and criminal sanctions including fines and imprisonment. Structural peer of the US CFIUS regime, EU Regulation 2019/452, the German AWG §§55-62, the French Décret 2014-479 / R. 151-1 et seq., the UK NSI Act 2021, the Netherlands Wet Vifo, the Italian Golden Power Decree, and the Swedish FDI screening regime.

Government Resolution No. 172 of 30 April 2021 approved the State Program for the Development of the Geological Sector of the Republic of Tajikistan for 2021–2030, directing the Main Directorate of Geology (GST.TJ) to expand exploration and reserve quantification across the Pamir, Tian Shan, and Kuraminsky belts covering 28 priority critical and strategic minerals. The programme targets a US$2.6 billion investment envelope across 76 sectoral projects in the 2025–2028 implementation tranche, with an explicit mandate to develop domestic processing and refining capacity for lithium, tungsten, nickel, and antimony. Tajikistan holds an estimated 50% of Asian antimony reserves and the Rasht Valley niobium-tantalum belt (major discoveries confirmed by the Tajik Geological Survey in July 2025), making this programme the foundational state instrument for all subsequent TJ critical-minerals FDI inflows and bilateral minerals diplomacy.

The National Security and Investment Act 2021 (c.25), receiving Royal Assent on 29 April 2021 and entering full force on 4 January 2022, created the UK's first standalone investment-screening regime, separating national-security review from the Competition and Markets Authority merger-control process. The Act empowers the Secretary of State to call in any acquisition of "control or influence" over a qualifying entity or asset on national-security grounds, and designates 17 sensitive sectors in which acquisitions crossing 25%/50%/75% share-or-voting-rights thresholds (or material influence) require mandatory pre-completion notification to the Investment Security Unit (Cabinet Office); completion before clearance is void and criminal sanctions of up to 5 years imprisonment apply to non-notifying parties. The Act is the structural peer of US CFIUS/FIRRMA (2018), EU Regulation 2019/452, Germany AWG §§55–62, France Décret 2014-479, Netherlands Wet Vifo, and the broader allied FDI-screening parent-statute lattice, and the enabling statute under which all UK mandatory-notification schedule amendments operate.

OFAC published a final rule on March 17, 2021 (86 FR 14534) adjusting the maximum civil monetary penalty (CMP) ceiling amounts across multiple statutory sanctions authorities as mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 (as amended by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015). The 2021 adjustment reflects the October 2019 to October 2020 CPI-U change (approximately 1.2%, reflecting COVID-suppressed inflation), raising the IEEPA ceiling from $307,922 to $311,562, the TWEA ceiling from $90,743 to $91,816, and the FNKDA maximum from $1,529,991 to $1,548,075. The rule is issued as a final rule effective on publication without prior notice and comment under the non-discretionary "good cause" exemption.

The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published abbreviated Hong Kong-Related Sanctions Regulations at 31 CFR Part 585, codifying the sanctions framework established by Executive Order 13936 of July 14, 2020 ("The President's Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization"). The regulations prohibit all transactions with persons designated under EO 13936 — those determined to have undermined Hong Kong's autonomy or contributed to the erosion of freedoms guaranteed under the Sino-British Joint Declaration — and add designated persons to the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. OFAC published the rules in abbreviated form for immediate public guidance, with intent to supplement with full interpretive guidance, general licenses, and licensing policy.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) extended for one year the temporary unilateral export control on software classified as ECCN 0D521 — "software specially designed for training a Deep Convolutional Neural Network to automate the analysis of geospatial imagery and point clouds" — adding a second year of control through January 6, 2022. The extension was required because COVID-19 prevented the Wassenaar Arrangement from formally convening in 2020 to consider the US multilateral control proposal submitted that year. Only License Exception GOV (§ 740.11(b)(2)(ii)) is available; all other exports require a specific licence from BIS.