Georgetown Law School Professor Jennifer Hillman, a former International Trade Commissioner and member of the World Trade Organization's appellate body, said she thinks there are grounds for a challenge to 25% tariffs on autos and auto parts, imposed on national security grounds under Section 232.

DOJ's Office of the Deputy Attorney General released new guidance for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement after President Donald Trump earlier this year paused FCPA enforcement to come up with new enforcement guidelines (see 2502120051). The memo laid out criteria for future FCPA cases and said prosecutors should prioritize the following four factors: the "total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations," "safeguarding fair opportunities for U.S. companies," advancing U.S. national security and investigations of "serious misconduct."

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., introduced a bill May 22 that would make the Defense Department’s Section 1260H List of Chinese military companies exempt from judicial review.

DOJ is revising its corporate enforcement policy to encourage more voluntary disclosures, including by outlining a clearer path for self-reporting companies to avoid criminal prosecutions, the agency said. It’s also adding trade and sanctions to the list of “priority areas” for its whistleblower awards program.

State attorneys general may take the lead on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement in light of the Donald Trump administration's pause on enforcing the act, attorneys at Crowell & Moring said in an April 14 alert. There's good reason to believe states will follow California's lead in announcing that it will enforce anti-foreign bribery efforts, the firm said.

In an April 9 memorandum, President Donald Trump instructed all "executive departments and agencies" to "identify certain categories of unlawful and potentially unlawful regulations within 60 days" and establish plans to repeal them. The memo told the agencies to review their regulations for compliance with 10 recent Supreme Court decisions, the first of which is Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the decision eliminating the concept of deferring to agencies' interpretations of ambiguous statutes.

The Liberty Justice Center, a conservative litigation firm, issued a call for plaintiffs to challenge President Donald Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs on all goods entering the U.S. The group is looking to challenge this use of IEEPA "under the major questions and nondelegation doctrines."

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with U.K. Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds and the British prime minister's Special Adviser on Business and Investment Varun Chandra on March 18 to discuss a potential bilateral trade deal, the Commerce Department announced. The meeting follows U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's visit to the White House last month. Lutnick expressed the Trump administration's desire for a trade deal, and Commerce said efforts to develop it "will continue to unfold over the coming days and weeks."

Akin Gump announced the official launch of its national security and global investigations team on March 13. The practice group will work on "cross-border criminal, civil administrative and congressional investigations and voluntary self-disclosures relating to potential sanctions, export control, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws and regulations," the firm said.

The Trump administration plans to "aggressively" enforce the False Claims Act, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael Granston said during the Federal Bar Association's qui tam conference last week, attorneys at McGuire Woods said. While most FCA enforcement action is taken in the field of healthcare, Granston said that DOJ will center future FCA enforcement on other Trump policy priorities, including customs fraud and "illegal foreign trade practices."