Insights

Los Angeles, CA – December 14, 2021: Harley-Davidson, Inc. and AEA Bridges Impact Corp. (ABIC), a special purpose acquisition company with a dedicated sustainability focus, announced on December 12 that they have entered into a definitive business combination agreement under which ABIC will combine with LiveWire, Harley-Davidson’s electric motorcycle division, to create a new publicly traded company. Crowell & Moring advised Kymco Capital and Kwang Yang Motor Co. Ltd. (KYMCO) in its strategic investment in LiveWire.

Washington – May 7, 2021: Crowell & Moring has published its fourth annual “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Report,” which highlights the firm’s initiatives aimed at increasing diversity and ensuring equity and opportunity firmwide. Building on its longstanding commitment to fostering a workplace that supports and develops employees of all backgrounds, the firm made significant progress in 2020.

Los Angeles – March 11, 2019: Crowell & Moring LLP is broadening its ability to help multinational clients navigate global expansion and regulatory compliance in China and the Asia Pacific by adding four international trade and global employment lawyers: partners Nicole J. Simonian and Evan Yee-Fan Chuck, senior counsel Robert Clifton Burns, and counsel Jackson Pai to its Los Angeles and Washington offices. As part of this move, Crowell & Moring International (CMI), the firm’s global policy and regulatory affairs consulting affiliate, is launching an office in Shanghai with seven trade, transactions, and tax professionals to support global businesses facing cross-border transactional, investigative, policy, and regulatory needs.

Crowell Welcomes

On September 28, 2023, the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC”) published the draft Provisions on Regulating and Promoting Cross-Border Data Flows (“Draft Provisions”) for public consultation.

The summer has been anything but slow in the People’s Republic of China. China is leaning into its regulation of emerging technologies, while attempting to strike a balance with its domestic economic priorities. In just the past few weeks, state authorities have issued a slew of draft measures and announced new initiatives – all with significant ramifications for businesses processing data within the PRC. From personal information processing to facial recognition to cross-border data transfers, what follows is a highlight reel of what you may have missed while you were away on vacation, with the comment period for many of these developments closing within the next few weeks.

Crowell & Moring Partner Evan Chuck will provide an update on the impact of recent Chinese legislation, including the Anti-foreign Sanctions Law, the PRC Blocking Statute, the PRC Export Control Law, the PRC “Unreliable Entity List” and similar laws that can put companies with complex supply chains in an untenable position of having to choose between complying with China law or US law. This may cause multinational companies to seek to divest of Chinese assets and present potential roll-up and consolidation opportunities for private equity and companies in the turnaround space.

Crowell & Moring attorneys will examine the myriad of challenges that companies face when balancing efforts to comply with the export regulations of both the United States and China. We will delve into both nations’ export control regulations and provide observations on areas to watch over the next year. Our areas of focus will include:

Climate change is a global challenge that demands a global response. Global standards are vital in a number of areas to tackle the cross-border problems that many organizations face from forced labor issues, global initiatives, and disclosure requirements to greenwashing. Among the pressing issues are how plastic packaging and waste is regulated on a global level, and how the recent EU initiatives apply to companies established outside of the EU territory. Level-setting will need to go beyond what environmental, social and governance (ESG) basics address and so called “green” or sustainable investments that claim to pursue environmental goals will begin to see more scrutiny. Beyond climate change, forced labor in the supply chain is another significant risk for multinational companies as they expand their sourcing to countries where labor practices are less transparent. Governments around the globe are working on numerous voluntary standards and a wave of new ESG regulation calls for more extensive and detailed corporate disclosures including that ESG risks are appropriately managed by third parties, such as supply chains and other business relationships. 

China’s advance pricing arrangement (“APA”) has been a valid tax planning tool for multinational companies. In fact, the China’s State Taxation Administration has developed a productive working relationship with the IRS’s Advance Pricing and Mutual Agreement (“APMA”) program.