Rubio Introduces Bill to Add ‘Genetic Technology’ to BIS Export Control List
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, introduced a bill this week that could lead to new export controls on certain U.S. “genetic technology” destined to China. The Stopping Genetic Monitoring by China Act would add various types of “genetic sampling and testing kits, analytical technology, and software” to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Commerce Control List, including:
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- Next Generation and Sanger Generation genetic sequencers
- Genetic sequencing kits and reagents
- Genetic testing and sampling kits (including forensic DNA testing kits)
- Related laboratory instruments
- Any instrument-specific software related to genetic testing, genetic mapping, genetic sequencing, genetic analysis and editing
- Any other related genetic technology that could enable human rights abuses.
The bill would also require the president to sanction entities or people that have provided or pose “a significant risk of providing” those technologies to certain entities in “covered countries” -- including China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria -- if those items risk enabling human rights abuses. Under the bill, the End-User Review Committee would be required to deny all export license applications for shipments of those technologies destined to the covered countries unless the applicant can submit “documentation” to prove the export won’t be used for human rights abuses.
Rubio said the U.S. “cannot allow Beijing to continue to use our technology to violate the human rights of its own people,” adding that the legislation “would cut off the supply of American genetic technology to China, and it would send a clear message that we will not tolerate China's abuse of human rights.”
Rubio and other lawmakers in June reintroduced a bill that would expand U.S. foreign investment reviews to cover companies, including those from China, “working with genetic information” (see 2306070014).