American universities and research labs should make sure they’re screening against a new Defense Department list of Chinese, Russian and Iranian institutions that have “elevated risks,” Crowell & Mooring said in a July 11 client alert. The list, published by DOD June 30, includes more than 45 entities that “have been confirmed as engaging in problematic activity,” including behavior that increases the risk that DOD-funded research could be “misappropriated to the detriment of national or economic security.”
As the U.S. continues to expand its chip export controls, South Korean and other multinational firms with semiconductor investments in China “face an uncertain future,” the Peterson Institute for International Economics said in a report this week. The report, authored by PIIE senior fellow Martin Chorzempa, outlines both the “collateral damage and new opportunities” for South Korean companies as a result of the Commerce Department's Oct. 7 controls (see 2210070049), saying Korean firms “have been some of the most impacted non-Chinese firms due to their large memory chip production facilities in China.” The report also recommends the U.S. do more to “reduce uncertainty” for allies operating in the region.
The Bureau of Industry and Security could use its existing “catch-all controls” to tighten restrictions around exports of sensitive artificial intelligence models, eliminating the need to develop new regulations to address emerging AI export risks, researchers with Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology said this week. The researchers said the catch-all controls -- which allow BIS to restrict exports if there is “knowledge” the item will be used in certain dangerous ways -- may be “sufficient” to “address the use of AI in more traditional national security realms.”
A Puyallup, Washington, resident who illegally exported optical magnifiers to South Korea agreed to export compliance training as part of a settlement agreement announced by the Bureau of Industry and Security this week. If Jaeyoun Jung doesn’t complete the training, he may be subject to a two-year temporary denial order, BIS said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is working with the Department of Health and Human Services on a “comprehensive assessment” of the U.S. influenza vaccine industrial base, the agency announced this week. The agencies plan to launch a survey to gather data on the industry’s “supply chain network” to better understand and respond to “supply chain deficiencies and disruptions related to production capabilities, transportation and logistics, research and development, foreign sourcing and dependencies, cyber security incidents, critical materials, and other challenges.” The survey also will help the agencies produce recommendations to “help improve the resiliency of the influenza vaccine supply chain in the face of future public health emergencies.”
A new rule change by the Bureau of Industry and Security will subject a broader range of chemical mixtures to declaration requirements, including for export or import. The revisions, outlined in a final rule that takes effect July 3, lowers the concentration threshold level at which mixtures containing certain controlled chemicals are subject to the declaration requirements. The change brings the U.S. Chemical Weapons Convention Regulations “into further alignment” with guidelines adopted by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2009, which established the lower concentration threshold limit for certain chemicals.
The Netherlands last week published new export controls over certain advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment in a step aimed at bringing Dutch policies more closely in line with strict U.S. export licensing requirements against China. The measures, previewed by the government in March (see 2303090032), take effect Sept. 1 and will require exporters to apply for and receive an authorization before shipping a “number of very specific technologies for the development and manufacture of advanced semiconductors.”
New potential U.S. export controls on a broader set of artificial intelligence-related chips could have massive impacts on the chip industry and American chipmaker Nvidia, said Colette Kress, Nvidia’s chief financial officer. Kress, speaking about reports that the Biden administration could tighten existing chip export restrictions as it prepares to finalize its China chip export control rule from October, said new license requirements could deal permanent damage to American chip industry sales in China.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week removed a Russian tour company from a temporary denial order imposed against Nordwind Airlines, a Russian airline that BIS said illegally operates aircraft on flights into and out of the country.
The Bureau of Industry and Security announced the launch of a formal process to coordinate with certain allies on export enforcement efforts, an effort the agency’s Office of Export Enforcement has been working on for months. BIS said the “partnership” -- agreed to with the fellow Five Eyes partners Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. during a meeting in Canada this week -- will leverage each country’s resources to expand enforcement “capacity” and better “prevent and deter evasion of export controls,” BIS said.