Import Licensing Requirements Remain Possible Under Supply Chain EO, Commerce Official Says
The Commerce Department is still considering the use of import licensing requirements as part of coming regulations to be issued as a result of a May 15 executive order on supply chain security (see 1905160019), said Jennifer Lane, senior counsel in the general counsel's office at Commerce. Lane discussed the EO as part of a July 10 panel on 5G and supply chains at the Bureau of Industry and Security export controls conference. Most decisions for the regulations remain under discussion and may change before the rules are released by the Oct. 12 deadline.
The EO bars imports and other "transactions involving information and communications technology or services" without a broad interagency review. Commerce and several other agencies are tasked with looking at regulations to "establish procedures to license transactions otherwise prohibited" under the EO. Such licenses are just one of the tools Commerce is looking at and once there's a better understanding of "the types of the transactions we are looking to target, that will also determine whether a licensing issue would be the best fit for that," she said. An initial ongoing step is defining many of the terms used within the EO, Lane said.
Commerce is also developing a process that "the secretary will follow" as transactions are reviewed and assessed, she said. Lane said significant pieces of the regulations will be "shaped" by assessments from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security. "We are in the process of receiving those reports," she said. Also yet to be determined is whether the regulations will come out as a proposed rulemaking or an interim final rule, Lane said. Either way, there will be a chance for the public to weigh in and the regulations will subject to potential changes, said Deputy Chief of Staff and policy director Earl Comstock.
Comstock said the administration, under the EO provisions as well as the National Defense Authorization Act, will be closely examining the supply chains of companies involved in 5G. "We are very serious about making sure that when you build out this technology, it's done with trusted suppliers, so there's going to be a big focus on how do you make sure that the companies you are buying from actually have managed their supply chains, actually have looked into the security of that and are taking active measures across the board to make sure that the technology that is put in place is something that can be relied upon."