USTelecom, ITI Offer Comments for Tightening Commerce Supply Chain Review

The Commerce Department should establish a bright-line process similar to the export administration regulations’ entity list for identifying supply chain threats, USTelecom said in comments Friday. The Information Technology Industry Council recommended Commerce designate foreign adversaries threatening the supply chain with specific criteria. In response to President Donald Trump’s May executive order, Commerce proposed new procedures for reviewing transactions, including imports, that involve information and communications technology and services seen as potential national security threats (see 1911260044). Commerce's bright-line process should rely on Homeland Security Department “risk assessment and related tools to draw lines between prohibited and permitted transactions,” USTelecom said. The association asked Commerce to coordinate its transaction evaluations with other agencies at “every step.” ITI called for a narrow scope for what transactions will trigger security reviews and a waiver process. It urged avoiding duplicative transaction reviews with export administration regulations, international traffic in arms regulations and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. Commerce's proposed rules are “overly-broad and highly subjective,” BSA|The Software Alliance said Friday. The proposed procedures would let Commerce “launch a review of virtually any ‘transaction’ involving almost any form of commercial technology, regardless of whether it has a clear nexus to national security or to a foreign adversary,” BSA wrote, saying it would create much industry uncertainty. The EO directs Commerce to issue regulations barring technology from foreign companies -- like Huawei and ZTE -- from U.S. networks.