US Releases Strategy to Better Coordinate on Emerging, Critical Tech Policy

The White House released a national strategy for critical and emerging technologies that it said will better synchronize agency efforts amid technology competition with China. The strategy builds on export control efforts carried out by the Commerce Department, a senior administration official said, and will allow government offices to better align their strategies as the U.S. restricts Chinese access to sensitive U.S. technologies.

The report, issued Oct. 15, comes amid calls for a national technology strategy by trade experts and industry groups (see 2009290042 and 2004130012), which say more government funding and a clearer approach toward sanctions and export controls would help business certainty and boost competitiveness. Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security is working on controls for emerging and foundational technologies, and although nearly 40 controls have been issued, the agency has been criticized for moving too slowly and for hindering the work of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (see 2010010020 and 2010020055).

“You had both Commerce and other departments and agencies that were each doing their own protecting and promoting for the technology that they had individually identified,” the administration official said on an Oct. 15 call with reporters. “This strategy will bring all those departments and agencies together in order to make sure that we have a common picture and a common set of priorities so that ... we can make sure we're focusing on the most critical technologies.”

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross called the strategy a “critical roadmap” to protecting national security and said it reaffirms actions the agency has already taken. Commerce “has already imposed controls on more than three dozen emerging technologies and we will continue to evaluate and identify technologies that warrant control,” Ross said in a statement. The agency recently requested industry feedback on controlling foundational technologies and is looking for more candidates for emerging technology controls (see 2008260045 and 2009170026).

The administration official stressed that the national strategy does not make any policy changes to BIS’s export control effort and said it defers to Commerce on export control decisions. The strategy “doesn't include specific announcements on funding or announcements of any sanctions or similar measures,” the official said. “But it does signal a new coordination among agencies so that items like that … will be better synchronized across the different parts of the government.”

The 18-page report focuses on efforts to make the U.S. the “world leader” in critical and emerging technologies, including through increased innovation, funding and resources for the technology industry. It also stresses that U.S. technologies should be “adequately controlled under export laws” and “multilateral export regimes,” saying agencies should strengthen “rules where gaps exist.” The report said the U.S. will increase efforts to “ensure that competitors do not use illicit means to acquire” U.S. technologies and create better “research security in academic institutions, laboratories, and industry.” China has boosted efforts to steal U.S. technology by infiltrating U.S. companies and universities (see 2008130036).

The strategy also emphasizes the importance of encouraging trade partners to develop their own export controls and foreign investment screening mechanisms, similar to CFIUS. The U.S. should “share its talents and capabilities with allies and partners” and “mutually benefit” from access to emerging and critical technology “within the trusted community,” the report said.

“We want to encourage our like-minded partners and allies who don't already have robust systems for controlling outside investments … to make sure that they have those same kind of robust systems in place,” the administration official said.

While the report calls for more resources to protect U.S. technologies, it also said some items are too widespread or “too early” in the research and development phase to identify “implications” for national security. In those cases, the U.S. should apply a “risk management approach” to evaluate the risks of these technologies,” which may include a “coordinated response to avoid, reduce, accept, or transfer risk.”

The strategy includes a list of 20 broad critical and emerging technology categories that the U.S. identifies as “priorities.” The list includes advanced computing, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, biotechnologies, communication technologies, semiconductors and others, which the White House said should be monitored to protect against technology theft.

The administration official said the U.S. “will no longer turn a blind eye to the tactics in countries like the People's Republic of China and Russia, who steal technology, coerce companies into handing over intellectual property, undercut free and fair markets, and surreptitiously divert emerging civilian technology to build up their militaries.”