Use ICTS Authorities to Protect Against Dumping, Former NSC Official Says
The U.S. should use its Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain executive order as a tool to restrict a broader range of imports that are dumped by foreign companies in the U.S., said Rush Doshi, a Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow and former National Security Council official. He also said the administration and Congress should work to codify the ICTS order, which could allow the U.S. to better harmonize the restrictions with allies.
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Doshi, speaking during a Sept. 18 event hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, noted that the Biden administration is using its ICTS order to put in place new import restrictions on certain Chinese connected vehicles, measures that it said are meant to protect U.S. national security (see 2402290034). But Doshi said the order may have broader uses.
“I'd like to see it used as a way of creating barriers to dumping and excess capacity in the U.S. market,” he said. Aside from cars, “a lot of things” are connected to networks and can move data across borders, Doshi said, so it would be “pretty straightforward to be able to use that authority to prevent dumping, but also to ensure national security simultaneously.”
The government should also work to translate the order into federal regulations so it has “some statutory basis” and is “protected from litigation,” Doshi said. Codifying the ICTS order could also allow the U.S. to more easily convince trading partners to impose similar import prohibitions, he said, adding that allies may be more willing to adopt the restrictions if they aren’t viewed as a political tool that the U.S. is using to target China.
“It's going to be really hard to get totally aligned with allies and partners on a trade agenda, no matter what happens in the presidential election or in Congress,” Doshi said. “But it's much easier to get aligned on a regulatory agenda, and regulatory harmonization that puts up these kinds of barriers might make sense for all of us, because the alternative is that we lose our industries.”
Other speakers during the ITIF event touched on active trade-related bills being debated by Congress. Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, the House Select Committee on China’s top Republican, pointed to the Biosecure Act, passed by the House earlier this month, which could prevent U.S. federal agencies buying from certain biotechnology companies “of concern,” including from some Chinese firms.
He also continued to applaud the Biden administration’s efforts to reform de minimis rules (see 2409130004), saying they will “allow U.S. manufacturers to compete on an even playing field by holding [People’s Republic of China] firms accountable for the use of slave labor.”