Trump Considers Invoking Emergency Law to Halt Chinese Acquisitions of US Firms

U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, White House Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert, Assistant to the President Peter Navarro and Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs Everett Eissenstat, delivers remarks before signing a memorandum on intellectual property tariffs on high-tech goods from China, at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 22, 2018. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

After announcing tariffs on Chinese imported goods last week, the Trump administration is now considering a crackdown on Chinese investments in U.S. tech firms that develop sensitive technologies.

Bloomberg reported on March 28 that the administration was considering invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, enacted in 1977, which allows the president to declare a national emergency for an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”