The Commerce Department is still considering placing export controls on Gate-All-Around Field Effect Transistor (GAAFET) technology, despite withdrawing the rule from the Office of Management and Budget last month (see 2002130033), said Hillary Hess, the Bureau of Industry and Security’s director of regulatory policy. The rule was expected to be one of six controls issued by Commerce early this year (see 1912160032) as part of the agency’s effort to control emerging technologies.

Officials from the Commerce Department's Census Bureau and Bureau of Industry and Security met March 9 to align their long-awaited proposed rules on routed export transactions (see 1907100053), which will feature “intense changes” and be accompanied by a series of training sessions and webinars, said Kiesha Downs, chief of the Census Bureau Foreign Trade Division’s regulations branch. Officials, including BIS Acting Undersecretary Cordell Hull, met to try to “flesh out” some remaining issues before publishing the proposals, which must be issued simultaneously because of the significant overlap within the rule between BIS and Census, Downs said.

Export controls over technology and software used for the 3D printing of firearms will not transition from the State Department to the Commerce Department after a Washington court granted a request to block the Trump administration from completing the transfer. The court, whose March 6 order temporarily blocked portions of a January final rule to transfer the controls, suggested the administration likely violated notice-and-comment standards and pointed to the “grave reality” the transfer might have on the proliferation of 3D printed guns. The decision stemmed from a January request (see 2001240047 and 2002070043) filed by 20 states and Washington, D.C., to urge the court to vacate the final transfer rules, which were scheduled to take effect March 9 (see 2001170030).

If President Donald Trump is not re-elected, the next administration will remain focused on China, export controls and Entity List actions but will likely approach China with a more clear, predictable strategy, two former top Commerce Department officials said. “You would see a more well-defined, carefully thought-through approach to issues like Huawei,” Peter Lichtenbaum, who served as Commerce’s assistant secretary for export administration during the Bush administration, said during a March 6 International Trade Update panel at the Georgetown University law school. “Not because it's a Democratic [administration], but because it's a more regular-order administration and less policy made by tweet.”

The Commerce Department will hold the first meeting of its Emerging Technology Technical Advisory Committee May 19, the agency said in a notice in the Federal Register. The committee will focus on identifying emerging technologies with dual uses for potential control by the Bureau of Industry and Security, which is working on restricting exports of both emerging and foundational technologies (see 2002040057). The first meeting is expected to feature remarks from BIS management. The meeting was originally scheduled for December and January before being delayed both times due to issues getting members their security clearances (see 2002240033).

The Commerce Department launched a portal for department guidance documents, the agency said in a March 4 notice. The portal provides all Commerce guidance issued, by individual agency, including the Bureau of Industry and Security.

While it is too soon to tell whether recent U.S. reforms of foreign direct investment screening will prove successful, the regulations introduced novel provisions to incentivize improved global investment screening, according to a former investment screening counsel for the Treasury Department. The Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (see 2001140060) also appears to fill many of the gaps encountered by previous U.S. investment screening efforts, said Anne Salladin, a Hogan Lovells lawyer and former senior counsel to the chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.

A Chinese technology company on the Commerce Department’s Entity List received an exemption from Commerce to buy U.S. goods to counter the coronavirus outbreak, according to a stock filing released Feb. 24. The artificial intelligence company, iFlyTek, which was placed on the Entity List in October (see 1910070076), said it applied for and was granted a “medical material exemption” from Commerce, according to an unofficial translation. The company said the exemption allows it to purchase U.S. medical supplies, along with other goods. A Bureau of Industry and Security spokesperson declined to comment.

The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security issued guidance Feb. 25 clarifying that the virus causing the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, SARS-CoV-2, will continue to be classified under the Export Control Classification Number EAR99, meaning export licenses are generally not required for exports of the virus. BIS said it issued the guidance in response to a report recently published by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, which classified the virus, SARS-CoV-2, as belonging to a species similar to SARS-CoV, a virus controlled under the Export Administration Regulations under ECCN 1C351.a.46. But because SARS-CoV-2 is a “genetically distinct virus,” “causes a clinically distinct disease” and the “specifics of the disease … are still being investigated,” BIS said it considers SARS-CoV-2 to be “distinct” from SARS-CoV, adding that it does not yet warrant increased controls. BIS did warn, however, that some end-users, end-uses and destination countries may require a license for exports of EAR99 items, and exporters “should continue to screen all requests in accordance” with the Export Administration Regulations.

The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security will submit a proposal for collection of information to the Office of Management and Budget relating to procedures for parties to request removal from the Entity List or Unverified List, according to a notice published in the Federal Register. Comments are due to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at OIRA_Submission@omb.eop.gov by March 26.