As the U.S. tries to convince allies to adopt similar export controls against China (see 2210270047 and 2210070049), some trading partners have voiced concerns over the U.S.’s strategy, saying they would rather have worked on crafting restrictions alongside the U.S. as opposed to having controls forced upon them, a Commerce Department official said.
Semiconductor companies are still awaiting licensing decisions on their chip-related activities involving China under the U.S.’s new export controls, with some concerned that licenses awarded to their competitors could hurt their revenue. In earnings calls and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission this month, U.S. chip and technology companies said they continue to prepare for drops in sales to China and that they fear Chinese customers may soon replace them with alternative suppliers, causing some U.S. companies to permanently lose their market share in China.
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The U.S. needs to provide universities with clearer guidance on what types of research activities they can conduct and share with China, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said in a report this week. The report, authored by MIT’s China Strategy Group, said U.S. schools face challenges managing outside “pressures” while also “preserving open scientific research,” which risks damaging American research abilities and chilling technology collaboration.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security will hold a webinar Dec. 8 to discuss information technology modernization updates. The webinar will include an overview of recent updates to DDTC’s Defense Export Control and Compliance System, BIS’s “IT Modernization roadmap” and the two agencies’ “collaboration efforts on data sharing and customer experience opportunities.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on information collection related to foreign availability procedures. BIS collects foreign availability information to determine whether U.S.-controlled exports are available from a foreign country “in sufficient quantity and of comparable quality so as to render the control ineffective.” Comments are due Jan. 23.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on an information collection involving reports of requests for restrictive trade practices or boycotts. BIS said it uses the information to “monitor requests for participation in foreign boycotts against countries friendly to the U.S.” and analyzes the information to “note changing trends and to decide upon appropriate action to be taken to carry out” U.S. policy of discouraging boycotts of U.S. allies. Comments are due Jan. 23.
The Netherlands doesn’t plan to mirror the U.S.’s recent chip restrictions on China (see 2210070049) “one-to-one” and will seek to impose export controls “on our own terms,” Liesje Schreinemacher, the country’s foreign trade minister, told Dutch news outlet NRC Nov. 18. Schreinemacher said the Netherlands has been talking “intensively” with the U.S. about export controls for two years, the report said, but a consensus on chip restrictions hasn’t been reached. But she also said a deal “could be reached within a few months,” the report said.
The U.S. needs to abandon the current model of multilateral export control regimes and move toward control agreements with smaller groups of allies in specific technology areas, said Liza Tobin, the National Security Council’s former China director. Tobin, speaking during an Emerging Technology Technical Advisory Committee meeting last week, also said the U.S. should look to impose technology-specific controls on items destined to China rather than end-use- and end-user-based controls, which are proving increasingly ineffective.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week renewed the temporary denial order for Russia's Rossiya Airlines. BIS first suspended the export privileges of the airline in May (see 2205200008), barring it from participating in transactions with items subject to the Export Administration Regulations. The agency renewed the denial order for another 180 days on Nov. 15 after finding Rossiya continues to illegally operate aircraft subject to the EAR, including for flights between Russia and Turkey.