U.S. universities are opposing the Senate’s Strategic Competition Act of 2021 over a provision that would expand foreign investment screening to include foreign gifts over $1 million given to U.S. universities. In a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this month, four academic groups said the expanded jurisdiction awarded to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. would subject “many gifts” received by colleges to a CFIUS review and would make it “harder” for colleges to conduct research.
The Bureau of Industry and Security extended its comment period for an information collection related to a request for appointment of a technical advisory committee, it said in a notice released April 23. The collection describes the functions and responsibilities of the Commerce Department TACs, which help advise the government on proposed revisions to export controls, licensing procedures and more. The comments, originally due March 15 (see 2101130013), are now due 30 days after the notice is posted on the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website.
The Bureau of Industry and Security fined a Maryland company and its owner $42,000 for illegally exporting crime control items, BIS said in an April 15 order. The agency said Panther Trading Company (PTC) of Landsdowne and its owner, Harsimran Singh, illegally exported $11,000 worth of crime control equipment to Mexico, $22,000 worth of goods to the Dominican Republic and helped a Nigerian buyer buy $12,343 worth of goods.
The U.S. will likely continue to update the regulations for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which has created some complications for industry, trade lawyers told the American Bar Association April 15. The recently revised regulations have also severely reduced incoming Chinese investments, which could have long-term implications, one lawyer said.
Two Republican lawmakers urged the Commerce Department to place more restrictions on exports of electronic design automation tools (see 2104060045). In an April 13 letter, Rep. Mike McCaul of Texas and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said they are concerned that EDA tools are being used by Chinese companies -- including Phytium Technologies, which was added to the Entity List this month (see 2104080011) -- to develop advanced weapons and support the Chinese military.
Kevin Wolf, a former top Bureau of Industry and Security official, presented his strategy for the future of U.S. export controls to address emerging security challenges during an April 15 Akin Gump webinar. He also briefly assessed U.S. export control policy during the Donald Trump administration and continued to say he isn’t behind the rumors that he’s being considered for the BIS undersecretary role see 2104070026).
G. Nagesh Rao is now the permanent chief information officer for the Bureau of Industry and Security after previously serving in an acting capacity (see 2101290059), a BIS spokesperson said April 12. Rao works as an information officer to help support BIS’s information technology modernization efforts, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Intel “generally” opposes the U.S. imposing “unilateral export controls” on foreign tech companies suspected of threatening U.S. national security, Tom Quillin, senior director-security and trust policy, told a virtual forum convened April 8 by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security to identify risks in the semiconductor supply chain (see 2103290003). BIS said it will use feedback from the forum, plus comments received in its notice of inquiry (see 2104060045), to help shape recommendations to the White House on President Joe Biden’s Feb. 24 executive order to relieve supply chain bottlenecks (see 2103110047 and 2102240068).
President Joe Biden has yet to choose a leader for the Bureau of Industry and Security, leaving the agency without a clear direction as it considers competing visions for the direction of American technology policy. The rival factions seeking to influence Biden’s choice underscore how much of an outsized role the once relatively unknown agency will play in implementing the Commerce Department’s efforts to outpace China in emerging technologies and control what lawmakers say is an overdue set of critical technologies.
Officials from the Commerce, Energy and State departments held a virtual event with Malaysian government officials this week to commend Malaysia’s efforts to implement strategic export controls. The event was held to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Malaysia’s Strategic Trade Act, which provides a “strong regulatory framework” for export controls, Jeremy Pelter, acting undersecretary for the Bureau of Industry and Security, said in an April 8 statement. The U.S. agencies said they remain “committed to advancing strategic trade control cooperation now and into the future.”