The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee is asking the Commerce Department to provide its licensing data and communications with chip companies, along with a broad swathe of related information, to make sure the agency is implementing its new China controls “fairly across all market players.”

The Bureau of Industry and Security will likely add more entities involved in China’s supercomputing and semiconductor manufacturing industry to the Entity List, said Thea Kendler, BIS’s assistant secretary for export administration. “We view advanced chip manufacturing and supercomputer activities in China as a national security concern,” Kendler said during a Nov. 2 Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee meeting. “So I expect that there will be Entity List additions.”

A Republican-backed bill introduced in the House could lead to the transfer of export control authorities from the Commerce Department to the Defense Department. The bill, introduced Oct. 28 by Reps. Jim Banks, R-Ind., Rob Wittman, R-Va., and Greg Steube, R-Fla., includes language critical of the Bureau of Industry and Security, saying the agency has made “little progress” in controlling emerging and foundational technologies under the Export Control Reform Act and that BIS’s export control authorities should be revoked.

Japan has begun “internal discussions” on whether it should join the U.S. in imposing export controls on advanced semiconductors and other technologies destined to China, Nikkei reported Nov. 1. Officials in Tokyo are “weighing which restrictions can be adopted in Japan, and will watch how other U.S. allies such as the European Union and South Korea respond,” the report said. Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez recently said he’s confident U.S. allies will eventually impose similar controls (see 2210270047), which set sweeping new license restrictions to limit China’s ability to acquire advanced computing chips and manufacture advanced semiconductors (see 2210070049).

Nearly a month after the U.S. announced new export controls on advanced computing and semiconductor equipment destined to China, lawyers and companies are still grappling with what they say is a complex set of regulations and are awaiting clearer government guidance on how and whether their activities are covered. The dense regulations, along with lengthy response times from the Bureau of Industry and Security, have caused firms to delay decisions on shipments until they can better understand their risks and BIS’s due diligence requirements, trade attorneys and industry officials said in recent interviews.

European officials are concerned that a sudden increase in exports of washing machines, refrigerators and other items to Russian neighbors are being used to help the country acquire semiconductors and evade export controls, Bloomger reported Oct. 29. Armenia imported more washing machines from the EU during the first eight months of this year than the last two years combined, the report said, and Kazakhstan imported more than triple the amount of refrigerators through August compared with the same period last year. European officials are concerned some of the items' components may be used by Russia's military, the report said, and have publicly said they have seen parts from fridges in Russian military equipment used in Ukraine.

Germany plans to approve the purchase of Dortmund-based semiconductor company Elmos by Sweden’s Silex, which is a subsidiary of China's Sai Microelectronics, German paper Handelsblatt reported Oct. 28, according to an unofficial translation. Germany’s final decision is expected “within the next few weeks,” the report said, and could “defy” a recommendation from the country’s intelligence ministry, which has warned that the deal could increase Germany’s dependence on China's semiconductor market. An Elmos spokesperson declined to comment.

The Bureau of Industry and Security published its first set of frequently asked questions on its new China-related export controls (see 2210070049), covering the definition of semiconductor “facility” and offering guidance on certain U.S. persons requirements, license review policies and more.

New U.S. restrictions on semiconductor exports to China likely will have a “truly devastating impact” on China’s access to advanced semiconductors within the next three years, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in an Oct. 27 report. Even though China has been expecting the controls and has stockpiled some chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, those stockpiles will eventually “dwindle” and the country “will likely be forced to step backward in technological time and use less advanced chips that the industry has long since moved past,” the report said.

Semiconductor company KLA is expecting the U.S.’s new export controls on China (see 2210070049) to hurt its revenue and is looking at moving its products to customers not subject to the restrictions, CEO Rick Wallace said during an Oct. 26 earnings call. The company is preparing for up to a $900 million revenue hit in 2023, but Wallace also stressed the company is uncertain how much its operations will be affected until it receives more guidance from the Commerce Department.