House China Competition Bill Proposes E-Waste Export Ban, Other Sanctions Measures
The House’s America Competes Act of 2022 would revise and introduce a range of new export control and sanctions provisions, including new restrictions on exports of electronic waste-related goods, more designations targeting China for human rights abuses and a repeal of the sunset of the Magnitsky human rights sanctions regime. The bill, unveiled this week as the response to the Senate’s U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, would also require the Biden administration to conduct “periodic” reviews over its export controls for surveillance equipment, urges the administration to reexamine U.S. export policies for countries that supply weapons to terrorist organizations and calls for better harmonization of U.S. export control and sanctions policies with allies.
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One provision would place new export controls on electronic waste items to stop those goods from reentering supply chains in the U.S. via China, according to a bill summary. The bill states there is evidence that China, the world’s largest electronic waste producer, may be causing counterfeit electronic waste parts to enter the U.S. military supply chain. Better export controls would “bar persons and entities from exporting or reexporting electronic waste items” without an exemption, which requires both the electronic waste exporter and importer to meet high due-diligence thresholds.
Another measure, similar to the Senate’s bill, would impose new sanctions against people or entities involved in “systematic rape, coercive abortion, forced sterilization, or involuntary contraceptive implantation” in China’s Xinjiang region. The new sanctions would be authorized under the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020. A similar provision urges the Biden administration to “continue to use targeted sanctions” against human rights abusers in Xinjiang and persuade the UN secretary-general “to take a more proactive and public stance” on the violations.
A third provision, which is also included in the Senate version, would repeal the sunset provision of the Global Human Rights Accountability Act, nixing the need for continued congressional authorization of the often-used sanctions regime. But the measure, unlike the Senate version, would also urge the president to share more information about human rights sanctions decision-making with other countries that have similar regimes and would also add more criteria to the administration’s congressional reporting requirements.
The House bill also urges the Biden administration to better harmonize its export control and sanctions policies with allies and calls for more frequent reviews of those policies, partly to ensure China isn’t acquiring sensitive U.S. technologies. The legislation calls for a review of controls over exports “with critical capabilities to enable human rights abuses,” including surveillance technologies. It also calls for the president to reassess U.S. export policies to countries, including China, that supply dual-use items to state sponsors of terror or foreign terrorist organizations.
Another new provision in the House bill would change how U.S. export restrictions on items to the Hong Kong police force would be lifted. The bill would extend the restrictions up until the date that the president certifies to Congress that Hong Kong has adequately addressed human rights concerns.
The bill also includes a measure to better sanction overseas kleptocracy and “close loopholes in legal and financial architecture” that assists those kleptocrats. The bill would establish an Anticorruption Action Fund at the Treasury Department to lead these efforts, which would be funded by fines and penalties derived from prosecutions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The legislation also includes $52 billion for fiscal years 2022 through 2026 to fund the semiconductor research and incentive provisions of the Chips for America Act (see 2201250040).