The Bureau of Industry and Security isn’t preparing any “imminent” emerging technology export controls on artificial intelligence items, Hillary Hess, the agency’s regulatory policy director, said during a technical advisory committee meeting this week. She also denied an industry rumor the U.S. is preparing to issue a set of sweeping, advanced AI controls, similar to the semiconductor restrictions against China that were released in October.
The Bureau of Industry and Security should have given its technical advisory committees more time to review its new chip controls before they were published in October (see 2210070049), which would have helped BIS mitigate unintended consequences for a dense and complex set of restrictions, a chip industry official and an advisory committee member said this week. The semiconductor industry also wished BIS had first proposed some of the restrictions for public comment before making them final, the official said, or delayed the effective date to give companies more time to decipher the rules, especially surrounding the new U.S.-persons restrictions.
The Bureau of Industry and Security will add a host of Chinese and Russian entities to the Entity List, including top Chinese chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., the agency said in a pair of notices released Dec. 15.
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a 180-day temporary denial order this week against three people and two companies for illegally sending controlled exports to Russia as part of a Moscow-led sanctions evasion scheme. Along with the denial order, DOJ indicted the three people, along with others, on charges related to the illegal exports, including money laundering, wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiring to defraud the U.S.
Japan and the Netherlands have “agreed in principle” to join the U.S. in imposing certain new semiconductor export controls on China (see 2212080012), Bloomberg reported Dec. 12. The agreement, which will likely be announced in the “coming weeks,” will see Japan and the Netherlands “adopt at least some” of the restrictions announced by the Bureau of Industry and Security in October (see 2210070049), the report said. The two countries are planning to restrict exports of “machinery capable of fabricating 14-nanometer or more advanced chips to China,” the report said. A BIS spokesperson pointed to Undersecretary Alan Estevez's comments last week, when he said he remains confident U.S. allies will impose similar export restrictions against China (see 2212060059).
Technology competition with China, including U.S. foreign direct investment reviews, will be part of the oversight priorities of the Republican-controlled House during the next Congress, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California said last week.
The Bureau of Industry and Security again (see 2209120002) sent a final rule for interagency review that could implement certain export control decisions agreed to at the multilateral Australia Group and place new controls on certain marine toxins, plant pathogens and biological equipment. BIS sent the rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Dec. 7 after previously sending it to OIRA Sept. 9, where it was completed with some changes (see 2209120002). The rule, if published, could finalize May proposed controls on four dual-use biological toxins that BIS said can be weaponized to kill people or animals.
A deal between the U.S. and the Netherlands on new export controls for chipmaking equipment destined for China could come as soon as next month, Bloomberg reported Dec. 7. The U.S. has been working to convince the Dutch to impose similar semiconductor export controls and restrict the ability of Netherlands-based ASML to provide certain advanced equipment to China (see 2211210035). The report said it remains unclear what the potential U.S.-Dutch agreement would mean for ASML’s China sales. Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez said Dec. 7 that he remains confident the U.S. will convince allies to impose harsher restrictions against China, and said he respects the Netherlands’ desire to shape its own export control policies (see 2212060059).
The Bureau of Industry and Security's additions to the Entity List this week shows the agency is “constantly monitoring, assessing, and acting to prevent items subject to U.S. law from being diverted to malign purposes,” Undersecretary Alan Estevez said in a press release published by BIS Dec. 8. The agency this week added 24 companies to the Entity List for participating in illegal exports to aid Russia’s military, supply export-controlled items to Iran or support Pakistan’s nuclear activities (see 2212070022).
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week renewed the temporary denial order (TDO) for three U.S. companies for their involvement in illegally exported technical drawings and blueprints to China (see 2206080068). The order, issued in June, was renewed for another 180 days, BIS said Dec. 5, partly because the agency found possible evidence of additional export violations.