Chinese imports of chipmaking “machines” dropped in November to their lowest levels in two years, Bloomberg reported Dec. 21. Chinese companies reported $2.3 billion worth of imports of the machines last month, a 40% drop from the previous year and the lowest level since May 2020, the report said. The drop comes amid new U.S. export restrictions on semiconductor items to China (see 2210070049, 2211010042 and 2212060059).

On the last day of the current Congress, retiring Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, introduced a bill that would ask the Commerce Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to analyze the economic integration between the U.S. and China in priority sectors, and the U.S. government's views of how that integration should change over the next five to 19 years.

Several U.S. technology companies recently disclosed their ongoing efforts to comply with new export restrictions against China (see 2210070049), with some determining the regulations will have little effect and others saying the uncertainty is leading to business interruptions.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

The Bureau of Industry and Security granted an export license for U.S. chip company Nexcel Electronic Technology (NETI) after the company told BIS that new restrictions on China would force NETI to shut down and fire all its employees. NETI, which provides certain semiconductor services to Chinese companies, was granted a four-year license to continue its operations, the company’s lawyer and trade consultant told Export Compliance Daily.

China officially requested dispute consultations with the U.S. at the World Trade Organization Dec. 15 over American export controls on certain semiconductors, the WTO announced. China, which announced the move earlier in the week (see 2212120061), said the restrictions violate Article XXII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT), Article XXII of the General Agreement on Trade in Services, Article 8 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures and Article 64.1 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

The Bureau of Industry and Security added a host of Chinese and Russian entities to the Entity List, including top Chinese chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. and leading Chinese artificial intelligence firms, the agency said in a pair of notices released Dec. 15. The new restrictions on the Chinese firms are aimed at “severely restricting” China’s ability to leverage AI, advanced computing and other commercial technologies for its military or human rights abuses, BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez said. The agency added the Russian entities to the list after it was unable to complete end-use checks. The changes took effect Dec. 16.

The Bureau of Industry and Security isn’t preparing any “imminent” emerging technology export controls on artificial intelligence items, Hillary Hess, the agency’s regulatory policy director, said during a technical advisory committee meeting this week. She also denied an industry rumor the U.S. is preparing to issue a set of sweeping, advanced AI controls, similar to the semiconductor restrictions against China that were released in October.

The Bureau of Industry and Security will add a host of Chinese and Russian entities to the Entity List, including top Chinese chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., the agency said in a pair of notices released Dec. 15.

The Bureau of Industry and Security should have given its technical advisory committees more time to review its new chip controls before they were published in October (see 2210070049), which would have helped BIS mitigate unintended consequences for a dense and complex set of restrictions, a chip industry official and an advisory committee member said this week. The semiconductor industry also wished BIS had first proposed some of the restrictions for public comment before making them final, the official said, or delayed the effective date to give companies more time to decipher the rules, especially surrounding the new U.S.-persons restrictions.