The U.S. is planning more export restrictions on semiconductor manufacturing items destined to China and could publish them as early as next month, Bloomberg reported March 10. The new restrictions could “double the number of machines” that require export licenses, the report said, placing new controls on Applied Materials and other chip equipment makers. The Biden administration plans to coordinate the new restrictions with the Netherlands and Japan, but “doesn’t plan to water down its plans if those other nations adopt weaker guidelines,” the report said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security plans to expand its university outreach program to include more schools that may be working on export-controlled technologies, said Matt Axelrod, the agency’s top export enforcement official. Axelrod, speaking during an academic security seminar last week, also outlined the BIS compliance expectations for researchers, warning that not all fundamental research is exempt from export licensing requirements.
The Biden administration's FY 2024 budget request includes funding to support a new outbound investment review “program” and more money for U.S. agencies to carry out export control and sanctions authorities.
The Bureau of Industry and Security should “significantly” strengthen export controls against Huawei to further restrict the Chinese technology company from buying U.S.-origin items, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in a March 6 letter to the agency. Although McCaul applauded its use of the Entity List and the foreign direct product rule to “curtail Huawei’s unconstrained march to dominate 5G telecommunications systems globally,” he said more should be done.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on an information collection relating to technology letters of explanation. The letters provide the agency with a description of a technology in a license application, allowing BIS technical staff to "evaluate the impact of licensing the export on United States national security and foreign policy." It also requires the “consignee” to certify that an export involving controlled technical data will not be released to blocked people or entities. Comments are due May 8.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week suspended the export privileges of four people for illegally exporting weapons, ammunition and other items to Mexico and Iran.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on an information collection involving voluntary self-disclosures of antiboycott violations. Comments are due May 8.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is preparing a mandatory survey for hundreds of U.S. space companies, suppliers and researchers to collect data on supply chains used by the U.S. space industrial base, the agency said this week. The effort -- which is a partnership among BIS, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- will help the agencies “identify the structure and interdependencies” of the space industrial base, especially those that work with NASA or NOAA.
Shipments of export-controlled technologies from the U.S. and its allies to Russia have dropped nearly 50% by value since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, said Thea Kendler, the Bureau of Industry and Security’s assistant secretary for export administration. Kendler, speaking during a conference last week hosted by the Association of Women in International Trade, touted the impact of export restrictions imposed by Japan, the U.K., South Korea and other nations she said are part of the Global Export Control Coalition (GECC), adding that the controls have led to the “severe deterioration” of Russia’s ability to sustain its military.
The Bureau of Industry and Security approved $23 billion worth of prospective exports involving Chinese companies on the Entity List from January through March 2022, representing about 79% of all license applications it received for those companies during that time period. The data, recently released by House Foreign Relations Committee Chair Michael McCaul, R-Texas, shows an “unacceptable” amount of approvals, the lawmaker said.