The Bureau of Industry and Security appears to be making good on its pledge to step up export control enforcement to protect sensitive American technology from China, two former U.S. government officials said Oct. 15.

Group of 7 officials meeting in Rome last week said they have made progress on semiconductor supply chain issues and stressed the importance of addressing industrial policies that are unfairly propping up certain domestic chip industries.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. is increasingly requiring companies to enter into mitigation agreements before approving a deal, and those agreements are getting more complex, said a former senior government official who worked on CFIUS cases. And although some companies fear the ongoing CFIUS review of Japan’s Nippon Steel signals that the committee could be veering away from its traditional national security focus, the former official said he’s not expecting the Nippon Steel case to spark a trend of politically motivated reviews.

Companies affected by Norway’s recently announced export controls on emerging technologies should “act promptly” to make sure their exports don’t raise any legal or reputational risks, including by updating internal compliance programs, training employees on new licensing requirements and correctly classifying their goods and technology, the law firm Wikborg Rein said in an October client alert. The firm also said companies should review their current business dealings to identify any transactions that will require a license after the new controls take effect Nov. 1.

U.S. semiconductor export controls on China lack a clear “endgame,” said Michael Mazarr, a senior political scientist with the RAND think tank. He said the controls are a “perfect example” of a U.S. policy approach that embraces “competition for its own sake and rushing down blind alleys without a clear sense of where policy will lead.”

New export compliance guidance issued by the Bureau of Industry and Security outlines the agency’s due diligence expectations for financial institutions and warns that companies that “self-blind” to red flags could face penalties.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao urged U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo this week to lift U.S. semiconductor export restrictions against China (see 2211010042 and 2302020034) and reverse its proposed import restrictions on Chinese connected vehicles (see 2409220001), saying the two countries need to reach a clearer understanding around their national security-related trade policies.

Norway is adding a new annex to its export control list to cover a set of “critical goods and technologies” that aren’t currently subject to export licensing requirements, including certain advanced semiconductors and quantum computers, according to an unofficial translation of an Oct. 3 notice from the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The new annex, effective Nov. 1, will cover items that “are considered disruptive technologies or emerging technologies that are of such a nature that they should be subject to control,” the ministry said.

Paul Ledet has joined U.S. semiconductor company AMD as its director of trade compliance, he announced on LinkedIn. Ledet previously helped oversee trade compliance and classification for National Instruments.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is expanding its Validated End User program to include a new export authorization for data centers, which could allow certain preapproved data facilities to more quickly obtain advanced semiconductors and other U.S.-controlled items with artificial intelligence uses.