Chapter News

General Report – Activities of the European Union

The EU in 2017 Find out everything you need to know about the European Union’s achievements in 2017, the 60th anniversary of the founding Treaties of Rome. The General Report brings you up to date on how the EU is delivering on its 10 priorities, including action to boost jobs and the economy and the trade deals with Canada and Japan. Learn too about how the EU is tackling the challenge of migration and about major new cooperation on defence and security....

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Member News

Homeland Security Inspector General Issues Report on USCIS Processing Times for Green Cards

By Greenberg Traurig On March 14, USCIS released an Inspector General’s report on Green Card Processing Times.  The report found that green card processing times exceeded the existing 120-day goal by taking an average of 282 days to complete. The report identified processing times are greatly affected by interviews and vetting occurring at USCIS. The report made two specific recommendations which USCIS concurred: Recommendation 1: Implement plans to present information on the USCIS website that more accurately reflects the length of the...

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Member News

Philips Lighting underlines leadership in lighting for the Internet of Things with new IoT platform

By Philips Lighting Philips Lighting (Euronext: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting, today announced a new Internet of Things (IoT) platform, called Interact, that will enable its professional customers to unlock the full potential of connected lighting for the IoT. The platform supports the company's strategy to deliver new data-enabled services as value expands from lighting products and systems to services. Today, the company also announced connected lighting systems that can generate and upload data to its Interact IoT platform...

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Member News

DOJ Officials Signal Expansion of Voluntary Self-Disclosure Incentives Beyond the FCPA

By Thompson Hine LLP On March 1, 2018, DOJ attorneys, speaking at the ABA’s annual White Collar Crime Conference, indicated that DOJ may consult the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy for guidance in other areas of corporate criminal prosecution when assessing whether voluntary self-disclosure may justify declination. John Cronan, acting head of the Criminal Division, and Benjamin Singer, chief of the Securities and Financial Fraud Unit, highlighted DOJ’s decision to forgo prosecution of Barclays PLC as an example of the application...

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Member News

DSM announces repurchase of shares to cover share based compensation plans and stock dividend

By Royal DSM Royal DSM, a global science-based company active in health, nutrition and materials, today announces that it intends to repurchase 500,000 ordinary shares, starting on 19 March 2018, in order to cover commitments under share based compensation plans and 1,100,000 ordinary shares, starting on 14 May 2018, in order to cover commitments for stock dividend as part of the final dividend 2017. Based on the closing price of the DSM share on Euronext Amsterdam on 16 March 2018...

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Member News

Erik Smithweiss, Partner at GDLSK, will be speaking at a Webinar on Exclusion Requests for Steel and Aluminum Tariffs

By GDLSK Erik Smithweiss will be speaking on Wednesday March 21, 2018 on the new procedures for requesting exclusions from the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum in a webinar for the Foreign Trade Association.  The 25% tariff on steel imports and 10% on aluminum go into effect on March 23, 2018.  For more information on the webinar and to register, please click HERE. For a related article on the proposed tariffs, please click HERE. Compliments of Grunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman &...

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Brexit News, Chapter News

EU and UK reach Brexit transition deal

U.K. Brexit Secretary David Davis and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier have reached a political deal on the terms of a Brexit transition.  You can download the draft Agreement HERE. This Agreement sets out the arrangements for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ("United Kingdom") from the European Union and from the European Atomic Energy Community (“Euratom”). The colouring of the text corresponds to the following meanings: Text in green is agreed at negotiators' level,...

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Member News, News

Philips Lighting announces intention to change company name to Signify while keeping the Philips brand for its products

Philips Lighting - Philips Lighting (Euronext: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting, today announced its intention to change its name from Philips Lighting to Signify. The choice of the new company name originates from the fact that light becomes an intelligent language, which connects and conveys meaning. The company will continue to use the Philips brand, the most trusted lighting brand in the world, under the existing licensing agreement with Royal Philips. "We're excited to announce our new company name as another...

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Member News, News

EY survey finds savings from US tax reform spurs reinvestment through research & development and mergers & acquisitions

Ernst & Young - 73% of companies surveyed are likely to accelerate M&A strategies, driven by mid-cap companies 48% of companies surveyed are willing to pay more to acquire companies now compared to before tax reform 89% of companies surveyed plan to enhance compensation US companies are eying growth initiatives as they seek to deploy anticipated tax savings from the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA), according to the EY Tax Reform Dollar Deployment Survey, conducted jointly by Ernst &...

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Member News, News

Lisbon, Porto and Cascais take top spots in City Brand Ranking

aciep - Portugal Global Trade and Investment Agency -   Lisbon once again topped the City Brand Ranking that analyses business, tourism and living conditions of the 308 Portuguese municipalities, with Porto and Cascais taking the second and third spots, Bloom Consulting said on Tuesday. In this fifth edition of the annual study, which measures how the municipalities are seen and classifies the performance of each one's brand, Lisbon was ranked first in all three categories: "Business," "Visiting" and "Living". The top 10...

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