Dan Harris in CIPS

“People are terrified of three things with China,” adds Dan Harris, attorney at law firm Harris Bricken: tensions between the country and Taiwan, its Covid-19 response, and rising prices and shipping costs. “And those three together have caused people to say, I’ve got to diversify. I’ve got to get out, and they’re willing to pay more to be in Mexico.”

Harris says: “People are finally waking up to the idea of Latin America. Even in the last six months, people are saying, I want to go into Mexico because I want to be selling more into Latin America. Or I want to go into Colombia, or Peru. People are starting to look at Latin America as a market.”

Fred Rocafort in The Diplomat

Some foreign lawyers in China, who by definition are forbidden from practicing law in the country, have been open about this gaping hole in China’s legal protections. American attorney Fred Rocafort in 2019 wrote in a blog for law firm Harris Bricken that “China does not have an attorney-client privilege.”

Rocafort cites another American lawyer, Brad Luo, who had several years prior written that “China’s ethical rules for lawyers have a ‘bright line’ rule forbidding them from representing both sides in the same conflict, but go little beyond that.” Luo explained that China does not require lawyers to remain loyal to former clients, therefore allowing them to turn on them “without offending any ethical duty of confidentiality” to either the old client or the new client. Rocafort offers some examples: “Perhaps your Chinese lawyer has another client who would just love to take a look at that new patent application of yours. Perhaps your Chinese law firm stands to benefit by tipping off your competitor before it files your trademark application – we have many times heard of this happening.”

Both Luo and Rocafort come to the conclusion that “if I were a client, I’d hesitate talking about certain things with my Chinese lawyer.”

Dan Harris in Plastics Today

To be clear, there are certain downsides to leaving China that experts Dan Harris and Andrew Hupert of the international law firm Harris Bricken detailed in a Feb. 23 webinar titled, “Moving Your Manufacturing from China to Mexico.”

Chief among those dangers is the very real possibility of losing access to your company’s assets and intellectual property (IP) if you announce plans to leave China before moving all molds, tooling, and personnel out of the country, Harris cautioned.

“I’m here to dispel the notion that leaving China involves basically pushing a button — it’s a lot more than that. There are risks involved in leaving China. To quote one of my clients: ‘Hell hath no fury like a Chinese factory spurned.’”

Jonathan Bench in The Epoch Times

International business law expert Jonathan Bench told The Epoch Times the deal signals that meeting its growth needs is the Indian government’s primary concern.

“Clearly the Indian government’s number one priority is continuing to provide comprehensive infrastructure to support its explosive growth in the coming decade,” said Bench.

The current deal has obvious geo-political ramifications. Bench said Asia watchers will continue to study how closely India aligns with the United States, Russia, and China on several fronts.

“From a geo-political standpoint, India cannot really afford to do without any of these countries in the near-term. It is not yet clear how much India will be willing to distance itself from Russian energy and weapons and Chinese manufacturing,” said Bench.

Griffen Thorne in MediaPost

“This news isn’t shocking to me,” says Griffen Thorne, an attorney with the Harris Bricken Sliwoski law firm.

“What is shocking is that if they were going to reach this conclusion and it was kind of destined to be this way, why is it only happening now after so many years?

“I think you have to be careful reading this because they’re not saying it’s unsafe. They’re just saying we don’t know if it is safe.”

Vince Sliwoski in Lucid News

Meeting land use requirements will also be a pressing concern for psilocybin entrepreneurs. Just leasing a space to provide psilocybin is going to be complex. Vince Sliwoski, a business lawyer, managing partner at the law firm Harris Bricken, and editor of the Canna Law Blog and the Psychedelics Law Blog, compiled a list of 10 things to consider about property leases for psilocybin businesses.