U.S. computing chip manufacturers need to do more to stem the flow of their export-controlled products to Russia’s defense industrial base, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Sept. 10.
The Netherlands last week said it expanded its export controls on advanced semiconductor manufacturing tools, imposing new license requirements on certain deep ultraviolet lithography equipment that can be used to make high-end chips. The new control, effective Sept. 7, is meant to restrict equipment that can be used to make chips with “advanced military applications,” the Dutch government said, which “has implications for the Netherlands’ security interests.”
The EU needs to strengthen its foreign investment screening rules and develop a new strategy to shore up its supply of critical raw materials, which will help shield EU countries from economic coercion, the European Commission said in a new report.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, announced Sept. 5 that officials from four large U.S. computing chip manufacturers will testify at a hearing next week on Russia’s efforts to evade U.S. export controls.
A new set of advanced technology export controls announced by the Bureau of Industry and Security this week will apply to quantum computing, semiconductor manufacturing, 3D printing and other critical technologies that BIS said could be used by foreign militaries to harm U.S. national security. The measures, outlined in an interim final rule released Sept. 5, also include a new license exception that could allow U.S. exporters to continue shipping these technologies to a list of close American allies.
The House of Representatives plans to vote on several export control-related bills next week, including the Remote Access Security Act, which is designed to close a loophole that has allowed China to use cloud service providers to access advanced U.S. computing chips remotely.
Nazak Nikakhtar, acting head of the Bureau of Industry and Security during the Trump administration, blamed the deep state for a lack of urgency in confronting China, during a podcast interview with China Talk. Nikakhtar did not use that term, but said that it was hard for Commerce Department career officials to shift their thinking from promoting exports of goods to restricting exports or investment. Nikakhtar was previously a civil servant herself, working on antidumping and countervailing duty cases and negotiations with China.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Sept. 3 that the Bureau of Industry and Security is failing to stem the flow of U.S.-made advanced computing chips to China and must take additional steps to stop the “semiconductor leakage.”
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The Netherlands won’t renew licenses that had allowed leading Dutch chip equipment maker ASML to repair and maintain certain semiconductor equipment in China, Bloomberg reported last week. Those licenses are expected to expire later this year, the report said, and had covered ASML’s advanced deep ultraviolet lithography machines. The Bureau of Industry and Security had been pushing certain allies, including the Netherlands, to stop their semiconductor companies from servicing certain advanced chip tools under pre-existing contracts with Chinese customers (see 2403270038).