Former BIS Official Wolf Outlines Preferred Strategy for US Export Controls

Kevin Wolf, a former top Bureau of Industry and Security official, presented his strategy for the future of U.S. export controls to address emerging security challenges during an April 15 Akin Gump webinar. He also briefly assessed U.S. export control policy during the Donald Trump administration and continued to say he isn’t behind the rumors that he’s being considered for the BIS undersecretary role see 2104070026).

Referring to his plan as a “plurilateral approach,” Wolf said the U.S. should first identify new security issues, find the main producer nations of the key goods in those sectors, convince them of the security threat, get them to change their laws on end-use controls then proceed to set a series of unilateral controls. Wolf, an Akin Gump trade lawyer, sought to lay out a vision of U.S. export controls that isn't shackled by the long-term failures of a unilateral approach or the short-term shortcomings of a multilateral approach (see 2104070026).

He said that vision starts with identifying novel security concerns about American exports such as civil-military fusion, strategic competition and human rights violations, then identifying the allied, producing nations of those goods and convincing them of the threat. “Get them to change their laws to give them as much discretion as the U.S. has with respect to non-regime-based controls, end user-based controls which are particularly important in human rights areas,” Wolf said. “Then you proceed aggressively on particular technologies to set a series … of unilateral controls among the producer nations as a common threat.”

Wolf also reflected on his work at BIS, how the agency's operation changed over the last four years and how the Joe Biden administration will use the agency. Calling out the agency for its sporadic action under President Donald Trump, Wolf said that no matter what the plan is for Biden's BIS, at least there will be one, which is a marked difference from the previous administration. However BIS will be used, it will undoubtedly be a small part of a detailed strategy on combating China, Wolf said. For now, though, the agency is content with aggressively maintaining the status quo left by the Trump administration until Biden’s plan is implemented.