The Russian government has introduced a bankruptcy moratorium with effect from 1 April to 1 October 2022 in respect of all Russian legal entities and individuals except for certain residential real estate developers. The moratorium is intended to protect Russian debtors against creditors’ claims and provide support for players on the Russian market given the challenging environment they operate in. It applies to all Persons irrespective of their solvency.
Baker McKenzie’s Sanctions Blog published the alert titled Japan introduces further sanctions against Russia on 13 April 2022. Read the article via the link here. Please also visit our Sanctions Blog for the most recent updates.
The SEC’s recently released (and long-awaited) proposed rule changes that will require disclosure of climate-related risks are likely to have significant supply chain implications. The Proposed Rule would require listed companies to disclose information on climate-related risks and Greenhouse gas emissions; both of these disclosure categories include data related to corporate supply chains, and thus the Proposed Rule would essentially require public companies to obtain and analyze climate risks and climate impact data related to its upstream and downstream suppliers.
The first wave of retaliatory tariffs against certain Chinese-origin goods (the so-called Section 301 duties) are set to terminate under the Trade Act of 1974. By statute, the measures terminate after 4 years unless an affected party benefitting from the tariffs submits a request to the United States Trade Representative that the action be continued within the final 60-days of the 4-year period. Once such a request is submitted, the USTR must conduct a review and determine whether the action should be continued. The first round of the Section 301 retaliatory tariffs on products of China, commonly known as “List 1,” was effective July 6, 2018, which means a request that this action be continued would need to be “submitted” between May 7, 2022 and July 6, 2022 to trigger USTR to conduct its review.
On 11 March 2022, Supplementary Law #192 introduced the single-stage ICMS tax regime on transactions involving fuels. This new law aims to reduce the final customer’s tax burden on transactions involving the following fuels: gasoline, anhydrous ethanol fuel, diesel, biodiesel, liquefied petroleum gas and natural gas. Moreover, Supplementary Law #192 temporally reduces to zero the PIS and COFINS rates on transactions involving the above-mentioned fuels until 31 December 2022, without affecting the accrual of credits.
On 18 March 2022, the Brazilian Federal Revenue issued Normative Instruction No. 2,072/2022, which brought relevant changes to the import and export customs clearance.
On 8 December 2021, Treasury issued Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to allow the public to review and comment on proposed regulations to implement the beneficial ownership information reporting provisions of the Corporate Transparency Act. Passed on 1 January 2021, the CTA imposes on so-called “Reporting Companies” the obligation to report to Financial Crimes Enforcement Network information regarding their “Beneficial Owners” and company “Applicants.”
Interested parties could, until 6 April 2022, provide their views to the EU Commission regarding the so-called Unshell proposal or ATAD 3. Many will have flagged the uncertainties about certain concepts and the need for more clarifications while others will also have indicated more substantial issues such as possible non-compatibility with EU Law. It remains to be seen whether the EU Commission will take (some of) these comments on board. Meanwhile, international groups should not rest on their laurels because it is likely that the Proposal will be adopted (as is or in an amended form) but rather start screening the European affiliates in their corporate structure, to identify possible issues under ATAD 3 and look for possible remedies.
On 7 April 2022, the Public Registry of the City of Buenos Aires issued General Resolution No. 4/2022, which establishes certain requirements to evidence the accuracy of the legal domicile fixed by simplified stock corporations at the time of registration or when moving the same.
Since the inception of the European Union’s Whistleblowing Directive in 2019, we have seen greater scrutiny of whistleblowing practices and a number of key jurisdictions beyond Europe upgrading their whistleblowing laws. Read on for a summary of the latest developments in whistleblowing laws across the globe.