President Donald Trump and lawmakers should carry out a “comprehensive” review of past U.S. technology and investment restrictions involving semiconductors, including the range of recent export controls over advanced chips and related equipment that resulted from the Biden administration’s “small yard, high fence” strategy, the chip industry said.

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President Donald Trump took several steps during his first day in office to reverse, delay or scrutinize trade- and sanctions-related actions introduced by the Biden administration, ordering agencies to study existing export controls for possible loopholes, consider changes to outbound investment restrictions, or possibly postpone some of Biden’s recently issued rulemakings. Trump also revoked a sanctions authority that had targeted Israeli settlers in the West Bank and previewed plans to step up sanctions against drug cartels.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is planning to hold its annual update conference March 18-20 in Washington, according to the agency’s website. Registration for the conference hasn’t yet opened.

Jake Sullivan, in one of his final public appearances as national security adviser under President Joe Biden, urged the incoming Trump administration to continue imposing technology restrictions against China and to do so in coordination with U.S. allies.

China “firmly opposes” the Netherlands’ plan to expand export controls over certain semiconductor equipment (see 2501150057), which “threatens the stability of the global semiconductor industry chain and supply chain,” a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson said this week at a regular press conference, according to an unofficial translation. The spokesperson said Beijing has “expressed its deep concern” to the Netherlands and said it hopes the country will “respect market principles,” the “spirit of contract” and the “legitimate rights and interests of companies from all countries, including Chinese and Dutch companies.”

China pushed back this week against the Biden administration’s latest round of semiconductor-related export controls (see 2501130026 and 2501150040) and Entity Listings (see 2501150016), saying they risk further straining trade ties between the two countries. Beijing also added four more U.S. defense companies to its so-called unreliable entity list and said it’s reviewing whether U.S. subsidies for the American chip industry are unfairly propping up U.S. exports of legacy semiconductors.

The Biden administration’s last-minute publication of complex, consequential national security-related rulemakings appear to “bypass standard rulemaking processes” and are creating challenges for American technology companies, six trade groups representing major U.S. tech firms wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden earlier this week.

Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Treasury secretary, said Jan. 16 that the U.S. should institute a “very rigorous screening process” to ensure its outbound investment does not help China catch up to the U.S. in such key technology areas as artificial intelligence, computing chips, quantum computing and surveillance.

The European Commission this week called on member states to carry out a 15-month review of ongoing and past outbound investments in the semiconductors, artificial intelligence and quantum technology sectors, which will help the bloc “assess risks to economic security potentially arising from such transactions.”