US Needs More 'Nuanced' Approach to Emerging Tech Controls, Report Says

The U.S. needs a “technology-specific” trade policy as it pursues export controls over emerging technologies to limit impacts on industry, the Strategic Trade Research Institute and the University of Maryland Center for International and Security Studies said in a report released Oct. 13. The report analyzes three categories of items that it calls “chokepoint technologies” -- position, navigation and timing (PNT), quantum computing, and computer vision -- and examines the feasibility of trade controls on each category. The report stresses that while some items, including PNT technologies, can be controlled, others, such as computer vision technologies, are widely commercially available and should not be restricted.

The report outlines the delicate approach the U.S. should take when considering controls on emerging technologies. For an “effective” policy approach, the Trump administration needs to consider the “unique characteristics of each independent emerging technology sector” before pursuing controls, the report said. “Technology security risks and commercial benefits must guide policymakers’ solutions ... without cutting into civilian applicability.” A failed approach could “impose economic burdens on the private sector that threaten competitiveness and innovation.”

Although many PNT technologies are commercially available, the advanced PNT sector is working on “significant improvements to precision” that are still in an early stage, the report said. “These factors suggest that trade controls on cutting-edge technologies in the area are feasible,” the report said. Quantum computer access can be restricted based on “user or application” by targeting “quantum clouds, or platforms that share access to quantum computers,” but the sector is “expanding rapidly,” the report said.

Computer vision technologies, however, are “likely not a suitable target for trade controls.” The report said the sector already has a “global commercial reach” with both military and civilian customers. The report said that most computer vision innovation, such as facial recognition technology, has “already occurred.” But it said the Commerce Department may seek to control more technologies in this area, pointing to recent calls for controls on facial recognition software (see 2007160021) and Commerce’s January rule on geospatial imagery software (see 2001060024), both of which drew pushback from industry (see 2010090044 and 2004230034).

“Recent calls for controls on facial recognition indicate that other end uses of the technology may be ripe for politically desirable trade controls,” the report said, “even if technology dispersion has already occurred.”

The report calls for a “nuanced approach” to export controls and suggests “traditional list-based controls may not be effective.” Some “trade controls may be desirable, but challenging with respect to implementation feasibility,” it said. The controls may also place an “excessive burden on private industry, which results in a depression in domestic technological competency and economic gains from commerce abroad.”