A surprising number of globally-known firms are banned from operating in America, as well as some world-famous products. Whether it's down to the US-China trade war, trade embargoes, or what a product contains, there are many different reasons why a company or product may be prohibited in America. As crackdowns continue, read on to see some of the foreign companies and products currently banned in the USA.

Telecommunications company China Unicom is the latest Chinese firm to have been blacklisted by the US government. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) revoked its authorization of China Unicom's American unit due to security concerns. China Unicom Americas has operated in the US since 2002 but must close its doors within 60 days after the order is published. FCC spokesperson Jessica Rosenworcel said there is "mounting evidence... that Chinese state-owned carriers pose a real threat to the security of our telecommunications network." A lawyer for China Unicom said the order was "without any justifiable grounds." 

In September 2020, the Trump Administration banned five types of Chinese exports emanating from the Xinjiang region, which it says are produced using forced Uighur labor. The now-contraband products include cotton, hair products and computer components. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also named a number of offending companies, one of which is Xinjiang Junggar Cotton and Linen Co.

US intelligence “reasonably indicates” the firm and its subsidiaries use convict labor to process raw cotton. In a similar vein, the DHS issued a detention order on all products made by Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in December, with the department’s Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli going as far as to say that “’Made in China’ is not just a country of origin, it is a warning label”. Other notable Chinese enterprises prohibited from doing business in America include 24 firms that have been sanctioned for their role in the military build-up in the South China Sea as well as six AI companies, and the US government had been contemplating further sanctions and bans on major Chinese firms, which could include online shopping giant Alibaba and chipmaker SMIC.

President Biden has now gone a step further. In December 2021, Congress approved a blanket ban on imports from the Xinjiang region of China. Businesses will only be exempt if they can prove that their products have no ties to forced labor. As well as as cotton and linen, the US has identified products including viscose, silicon, fishing gear, and components required for the production of solar energy as goods that are commonly made using forced labor.

Also in December 2021, Biden added the Chinese company DJI Technology to its blacklist. The world's leading drone developer, DJI Technology has been accused of carrying out surveillance for the Chinese government, with claims that its drones target people based on ethnicity. 

The China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) might have signed a deal with the UK in 2016 to help build the country's first nuclear power plant (pictured), but the US is much more wary. The country had already blacklisted the China General Nuclear Power Group but President Biden added its affiliate corporation to the 'no-go' list in August. US concerns over China's nuclear capacity are increasing. In November last year, a report from the Pentagon revealed that China could have 1,000 nuclear warheads in its arsenal by 2030.

Popular online payment system Alipay, which is owned by Jack Ma’s Ant Group along with e-commerce giant Alibaba, was one of six Chinese apps to be blacklisted by former President Trump on 6 January last year. Alipay dominates the digital wallet market in China and overtook PayPal as the largest mobile payment platform in the world in 2014.

In March 2020, the finance app and its affiliate e-wallets claimed to have 1.3 billion annual users worldwide, but the former president hoped to reduce the American portion of that number significantly by signing an executive order to ban it on the basis that it poses a threat to “the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States”. The order suggests that the app could gather “dossiers of personal information” from its users. The order came into effect 45 days after it was signed, which was nearly two months after the former president left office.

Another of the eight apps that fell victim to Donald Trump’s final Chinese app cull at the beginning of 2021 was WPS Office, which is a suite that mimics Microsoft Office’s functionalities. WPS is an acronym of the software’s Writer, Presentation and Spreadsheet components and the app is a popular free alternative to Microsoft’s software. WPS Office was also banned by 20 February according to the executive order signed by the former US president, who wanted to halt the “pervasiveness of the spread” of apps controlled by people in China.

The US government's crackdown on Chinese communications company Huawei actually began in 2012 when it prohibited firms operating in America from using the company's networking equipment. Since then the freezing-out of Huawei, which has been accused of IP theft and criticized by the US for its close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, has escalated significantly, and in late 2018 Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou (pictured) was arrested in Canada at America's request for violating US sanctions on Iran. The Trump administration doubled down on the Chinese firm in May 2019, adding it to the ominous sounding 'Entity List', banning the telecoms giant from doing any business with US organisations and finally sounding the death knell for its involvement in the nation's 5G infrastructure.

The US government didn't stop there. In May 2020 it barred non-US companies from producing anything for Huawei that contains American technologies and in July imposed visa restrictions on Huawei workers. The following month the country's authorities tightened the screws further by beefing up regulations devised to limit Huawei's access to US chips and other technologies. China then pushed back with its own regulations, saying that it would punish any companies that comply with “unjustified” foreign laws. Even in the very last days of his presidency Donald Trump continued to wage war on the Chinese company and notified Huawei suppliers, including Intel, that their licenses to sell to Huawei would be revoked. President Biden has maintained the ban on Huawei.

Chinese telecoms titan ZTE has also fallen foul of the US government and American lawmakers slammed the company for its cozy relationship with the Chinese government, which they believe could enable mass surveillance of US citizens and companies. On top of this, ZTE was fined a whopping $1.2 billion in 2017 by the US Department of Commerce for exporting American technology to North Korea and Iran in violation of US trade sanctions.

In April 2018 the US government went on to prohibit domestic companies from exporting equipment to ZTE for seven years and subsequently banned the Shenzhen-headquartered firm from doing business in America. To compound matters, the US Department of Justice reportedly opened a bribery investigation into the company back in March 2020. The restrictions come at a heavy price, however, with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) estimating it could cost US carriers $1.8 billion to remove and replace existing ZTE and Huawei equipment. Be that as it may, the US authorities are pulling no punches and going all out regardless of the expense involved.

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Staying with telecoms companies, China Mobile has been shut out of the American market too. In May 2019 the FCC voted unanimously to block the firm from providing services in the US following advice from other government agencies, which urged the body to bar the Chinese entity due to national security concerns.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai explained the reasoning behind the vote: “There is a significant risk that the Chinese government would use China Mobile to conduct activities that would seriously jeopardise the national security, law enforcement and economic interests of the United States.” In November 2020 further actions were taken to try and limit the company’s alleged threat to America, and Donald Trump signed an order to ban investment in China Mobile, along with 19 other Chinese firms. The impact on the company’s stock was instantaneous and the move wiped 5% off its value in Hong Kong, which was the biggest drop within the space of a single day in almost eight months. The company remains on the list of banned Chinese companies in Biden's Executive Order.

The US government has also moved to block Chinese biometric video surveillance company Hikvision from operating in the country. The ban came into effect in August 2019. Hikvision pulled out all the stops in an attempt to rescind it, spending millions of dollars on a charm offensive that included intense lobbying of US government officials.

However the company's efforts came to nothing and the ban remains in place, although businesses can apply for a waiver license to get around it. On top of the national security concerns, the firm was slapped with the restrictions as a consequence of its alleged role in the persecution of the Uighur people in Xinjiang. Hikvision also featured on the list of companies believed by the US government to be linked to the Chinese military, despite adamant denial by the company that that is the case, which prohibits Americans from investing in the company.

China's second biggest surveillance equipment maker Dahua Technology was also placed on the banned list in 2019 due to allegations of involvement in the persecution of Uighur people, not to mention concerns over cyberespionage. US firms are prohibited from purchasing and using products manufactured by the company.

As is the case with Hikvision, American organizations are able to sidestep the ban on Dahua if they can get hold of a waiver license. Interestingly, the US government is simply following the lead of its Chinese counterpart, which has long held the belief that foreign video surveillance equipment poses a threat to national security.

Chinese companies aren't the only ones being shunned by America. A litany of Russian firms are barred or severely restricted from operating in the US due to everything from the invasion of Ukraine to corruption and cyberespionage. They include Kremlin-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport and cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab, with US government agencies strictly forbidden from using its antivirus software.

America's relationships with countries such as China and Russia have long been troubled. However, it's also banned companies that are tied to some of its closest allies. In November 2021, the US announced that it was adding the Israeli spyware company NSO Group to its national blacklist, banning business dealings with the firm.

NSO Group is the company behind the controversial Pegasus spyware, which is notionally sold to intelligence agencies, militaries, and law enforcement firms. However, in July 2021, it was accused of selling its spyware to authoritarian governments that later targeted activists and journalists with phone malware. NSO Group has consistently denied any wrongdoing. However, the US has insisted that the company's actions are "contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States."

Even companies based in ostensibly friendly countries can be banned from trading with America. For example, in 2020 five UAE-headquartered oil trading firms including Alwaneo LLC had their US assets frozen and were blocked from doing business Stateside because they had facilitated the sale of Iranian petroleum in defiance of American sanctions.

In a similar vein, a South African petrochemicals company called SPI International Proprietary Ltd. was heavily sanctioned by the Trump administration in March 2020 for contravening US restrictions on trade with Iran after it was found to be “knowingly engaging in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport or marketing of petrochemical products" from the Middle Eastern country.

The embargo on trade with Communist Cuba has existed since 1960 and the sale of products from the country remains illegal in the US. For instance, the country's signature rum, Havana Club, which is part state-owned, is available in 210 countries, but contraband in America, though Bacardi produces a copycat drink in Puerto Rico.

Likewise, Cuban cigars, the so-called 'puros', are illegal to buy and sell in the US, but Americans are permitted to purchase them in Cuba and take them home. Still, plenty of imitation brands are available Stateside including copycat Montecristo and Cohiba cigars made in the Dominican Republic.

Deemed a food poisoning hazard by the powers that be, unpasteurized cheese that has been aged for fewer than 60 days is forbidden to be bought and sold in America and has been since 1949. The long list of banned cheeses include France's iconic Roquefort (pictured), Brie de Meaux and Reblochon. Quelle horreur! Needless to say, a booming black market catering to die-hard cheese obsessives has sprung up.

Foods containing embedded non-nutritive objects have been banned by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 1938, meaning Italian company Ferrero's Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs, which famously contain a plastic toy, are forbidden. Luckily, American kids needn't feel deprived. Ferrero released a similar version Stateside in 2018 called the Kinder Joy. It consists of two separately-sealed halves, one which can be eaten and the other containing a toy, so as to adhere to US regulations.

Scottish expats have to resort to the black market if they want to get their hands on their nation of birth's beloved national dish haggis across the pond. In 1971 the US Department of Agriculture imposed a ban on the offal-packed pudding having taken issue with the key ingredient sheep's lung, which it believes isn't fit for human consumption. However, Scots in America wanting a taste of home can snap up haggis without the sheep's lung, or opt for a vegetarian version.

The most prized caviar in the world is the outrageously expensive roe extracted from the female beluga sturgeon fish native to the Caspian Sea, but don't expect to find it in America, which at one time accounted for 60% of global exports. The delicacy was outlawed in 2005 by the US Fish and Wildlife Services to help conserve stocks of the beluga sturgeon, which has been massively overfished.

 

Alcoholic beverages spiked with caffeine were banned in America in 2010 after the potent concoctions were linked to numerous cases of alcoholic poisoning, driving under the influence and other highly undesirable repercussions. As controversial as they are, these 'blackout in a can' products can still be purchased in plenty of other countries, including the UK.

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