Li Xu was appointed as Vice Secretary of the Overseas United Working Committee (OUWC) of the China Association for Promoting International Economic & Technical Cooperation, a subcommittee of the China Association for Science and Technology which is registered in the Ministry of Civil Affairs.   In her new role, Ms. Xu is organizing a global think-tank forum to address the post coronavirus rebuilding effort.  The OUWC is responding to the demands “facing the world frontier of science and technology, economic key...

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EU-UK Future Relationship: Council adopts negotiating directives On Tuesday, the EU Council adopted a decision to authorise the commencement of negotiations on the future relationship with the UK. As has been repeatedly stated by the EU, the mandate stresses that the future partnership must be “underpinned by robust commitments to ensure a level playing field for open and fair competition”. This is especially important to the EU, given the geographical proximity and economic interdependence between the blocs. Keep reading Europe reacts...

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Emergency decrees has been issued to tackle the spread of Coronavirus in “red zones” and other risk areas: “smart working”, allowing employees to work remotely, may be implemented even absent previous agreement between the parties (which is, generally, instead a prerequisite). In compliance with the general obligation to preserve employees’ health, employers must identify alternative measures to minimize risk of infection and preserve the earning capacity of employees not working “smartly”. Italian government approved over the week-end urgent measures to...

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On February 13, 2020, the United States brought new criminal charges against Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Company, alleging that the company participated in a racketeering conspiracy and conspired to steal trade secrets from companies in the United States. The new charges are in addition to the government’s previous allegations that Huawei committed financial fraud and deliberately evaded U.S. sanctions on Iran and North Korea. According to the allegations in the superseding indictment, Huawei used various methods to misappropriate intellectual...

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The U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the TCJA), which was enacted at the end of 2017, dramatically changed the U.S. cross-border tax regime. Many of the TCJA's international tax reforms that have received considerable attention deal with multinational corporations. However, there are somewhat lesser known provisions in the TCJA that relate to foreign individuals. This Holland & Knight alert deals with one such provision: a change to the U.S. "S" corporation rules that presents interesting opportunities for foreign individuals...

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The doctor / patient relationship is one predicated on trust. In any relationship, a certain degree of trust is eroded when one feels that the other isn’t 100% present during a conversation. The doctor / patient relationship suffers when the inputting of EMR (electronic medical records) seems to take precedence over communicating directly to the patient. Making eye contact, observing body language, and focused listening are crucial components to the history taking and even the physical exam. Picking up on...

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Money, money, money: the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework showdown continues Every seven years, EU leaders descend on the European Council’s headquarters for a multi-layered, rhetorical fight-to-the-death ‘battle royal’ to agree the EU’s seven-year Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) budget. Following months of proposals and internal negotiations by the Commission, Council and Parliament, European Council President Charles Michel called for EU27 Heads of State and Government to descend on the Europa building to hammer out a final compromise in a special meeting...

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In romantic comedies it’s not uncommon for the main character to realize their best friend - out of familiarity overlooked - is actually the one they’ve been looking for all along... The point is that it is often easy to overlook the value of what is sitting right in front of you. In a similar way, we have found that a lot of the information companies have stored in their internal systems - in the form of emails, memos, Pdfs,...

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The coronavirus has been a matter of public concern for weeks. There are already several cases of the highly contagious lung disease in Germany. Health experts are currently still talking about an epidemic, i.e. a locally restricted infectious disease, but it could quickly turn into a pandemic – a transnational and transcontinental disease. In this client newsletter, we provide information on the consequences of a pandemic outbreak with regard to your rights and duties as an employer. Can employees refuse...

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California Attorney General (AG) Xavier Becerra released revised draft regulations for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) late last week. The AG will accept comments on the revisions until February 25, 2020. The regulations are not yet final, and because the AG has added an additional notice and comment period, it is likely that additional revisions will occur before the regulations are finalized and become effective. While enforcement of the CCPA cannot begin until July 1, 2020, the AG has...

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