Alejandro Gomez-Strozzi Assesses Proposed US Prohibitions on Foreign Connected Vehicle Tech

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Alejandro Gómez-Strozzi assessed the U.S. Department of Commerce’s recently proposed ban on the importation of connected vehicles that contain Chinese and Russian software and hardware in the El Economista article, “EU anuncia prohibiciones a las importaciones automotrices desde China y Rusia por tecnología.”

Under the proposal, the ban will apply to software starting with model year 2027 vehicles and extend to hardware with model year 2030 vehicles. If enacted, this would be the first time the United States restricts general imports of vehicles due to national security concerns, indirectly impacting Mexico, the largest exporter of vehicles to the United States.

On what this may mean for negotiations over the upcoming 2026 revision of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, Gómez-Strozzi said, “We must pay attention not to where the technology is being produced, but eventually to who controls that technology, to know if that is going to be relevant to export to the United States, because in addition to or beyond the rules of origin, there is who controls the technology.”