A California-based semiconductor and telecommunications technology company recently received a warning letter from the Bureau of Industry and Security after it voluntarily disclosed possible export violations. The company, Credo, said it “inadvertently provided three evaluation boards of nominal value” to two customers without required export licenses. Credo submitted a final voluntary self-disclosure to BIS in June and received a warning letter in September with no penalties, according to a January Securities & Exchange Commission filing. Credo didn’t say where the customers were located but said it sells its products in Asia, including in markets where “multiple” companies have been added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List or the military end-user list. The company said it’s “in the process” of improving its export compliance policies and procedures but believes it “remedied the deficiencies that resulted in the apparent violations through additional training, system enhancements and enhanced export controls.”

The Biden administration this week previewed its plan to impose a “massive” set of export controls and sanctions on the Russian economy if the country further invades Ukraine, including measures to cut off Russian companies from both U.S. and foreign-produced technology inputs. The export restrictions could include an expansion of the Commerce Department’s foreign direct product rule, officials said, and would specifically target several of Russia’s “key” technology sectors, including its defense, aerospace, quantum computing and artificial intelligence industries.

Intel plans to build two new chip factories in Ohio worth $20 billion, with chip production expected to begin in 2025, the company announced Jan. 21. The two new facilities will help “boost production to meet the surging demand for advanced semiconductors” and could be followed by more Intel factories in the area, Intel said. The facilities will also help the U.S. “build a more resilient supply chain and ensure reliable access to advanced semiconductors for years to come,” Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said. Construction is expected to begin late this year. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo applauded the announcement, calling more factories “essential to our efforts to rebuild America’s chip building capacity.” The White House also urged Congress to finalize the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, which was passed by the Senate in June and would provide full funding for the Chips for America Act (see 2112010023).

The Commerce Department is seeking comments on ways it can incentivize domestic semiconductor investments and accelerate chip research to “ensure a robust domestic semiconductor industry,” the agency said in a notice. The comments will help inform Commerce as it prepares to implement semiconductor incentives and other chip provisions passed as part of the 2021 defense policy bill, the agency said. It hopes the public can help “inform the design and implementation of the set of potential” programs described in the bill, and is specifically looking for feedback from semiconductor manufacturers, materials providers, equipment suppliers, designers, trade associations, semiconductor buyers and semiconductor industry investors. Commerce said it may hold workshops to “explore in more detail questions raised” in the notice. Comments are due 5 p.m. EST on March 25.

The U.S. and the European Union should better align their export license exceptions, export controls and policies to avoid “unnecessary friction on trade” between the two sides, particularly surrounding chip equipment, the Semiconductor Industry Association said. The group said American semiconductor companies depend on overseas markets in Europe, and regulatory harmonization could help to “level playing fields with respect to export controls, particularly their scope, application, and enforcement.”

At a virtual World Economic Forum, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, the director-general of the World Trade Organization and CEOs in manufacturing and shipping said traders will change the ways they manage supply chains because of lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. Tai said "the pandemic in particular has laid bare vulnerabilities in this version of globalization that we have and existing supply chains that we all feel strongly that we need to address."

The U.S. this week imposed new sanctions against Russia for its “destabilizing” activities in Ukraine and privately previewed a harsher set of potential trade restrictions, including major new export controls on chip equipment. Although it remains unclear if those specific export restrictions would be coordinated with allies, the U.S., Germany and the U.K. all said Jan. 20 that they are ready to impose “massive consequences and severe economic costs” on Russia if it continues down a path to war.

The U.S. is working with Japan to build a multilateral forum to control exports of advanced technologies, which would be specifically aimed at limiting shipments to China’s military, The Japan News said Jan. 10. The forum would also include Europe and other like-minded countries and could restrict sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, quantum cryptography, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, the report said. The two sides are “currently specifying the fields to be subject to regulation” and hope to “establish a new framework for a small number of countries with advanced technology.” The White House didn’t comment.

Taiwan’s government will soon require companies to seek approval before they sell their assets, plants or subsidiaries in China to Chinese counterparts or other local buyers, a move that could create more oversight over transfers of sensitive technologies, the Financial Times reported Dec. 21. The new regulation, which is expected to take effect by early January, is designed to protect Taiwan’s semiconductor technologies, the report said. But some tech industry executives fear the restrictions could be too broad and “hinder overall future technology advancement.”

World merchandise trade dipped 0.8% in the third quarter of 2021 following four straight quarters of expansion, the World Trade Organization said, pointing to supply chain disruptions, with imports in North America and Europe weaker than forecast; production input shortages, in particular semiconductor shortages; and rising COVID-19 cases as the omicron variant recently emerged, as the causes. Trade volume was up 11.9% year-to-date through September, although this was slightly lower than the WTO's most recent trade forecast, the trade organization said. With export and import prices rising sharply, the value of world merchandise climbed 24% year-on-year in the third quarter. This boost was fueled by primary commodities including fuels, which saw prices double from the third quarter of 2020 to the third quarter of 2021, the WTO said.