US Taking 'Fresh Look' at Export Controls, Investment Screening, Senior Officials Say

The Biden administration is preparing to launch new export controls and investment screening initiatives to more closely coordinate with allies and better combat Chinese attempts to acquire advanced technologies, the U.S. secretary of state and national security adviser said July 13. Although the administration supports offensive tools, such as more funding for the domestic semiconductor sector, both officials said the U.S will continue to evolve its approach to defensive trade restrictions.

The administration is “taking a fresh look at tools like export controls [and] investment screening,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during an emerging technology summit hosted by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. is looking more closely at outbound investments that “could circumvent the spirit of export controls” and allow foreign competitors to access emerging technologies that could harm U.S. national security. He said there are “quieter initiatives, in a variety of configurations, on export controls and investment screening that will only pick up the pace in the months ahead.”

The comments came two months after the AI commission urged the U.S. to modernize its approach to export controls and expand disclosure requirements for foreign investment screening (see 2103030057). Both Blinken and Sullivan suggested they plan to follow those recommendations and pointed to efforts already underway, including more multilateral engagement with allies. Blinken said the recently established U.S.-European Union Trade and Technology Council (see 2106160061), along with new technology partnerships with the United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea, are “important vehicle[s] for advancing this agenda.”

“You all know very well these are incredibly complicated issues. The world’s democracies are not all on the same page on every single one of them,” Blinken said. “But at heart we do share the same principles, and I have confidence that we can work together through the differences that we have.” Sullivan added that the U.S. must work “especially closely with our partners on our export control and investment screening regimes to make sure they are postured for intense technology competition.”

Both officials also stressed the importance of emerging technology standards setting. They said they will prioritize working with allies to retake leadership roles at standards bodies, some of which China has dominated in recent years (see 2103160047). “The Biden administration is working with allies and partners to shore up the integrity of international standards organizations,” Sullivan said, so “that it's democracies rather than the coercive or nationalistic efforts of autocracies in these bodies that get traction and drive outcomes.” Blinken said this will help the U.S. “arrive at standards that are technologically sound, have earned people’s trust, reflect our values, and help American companies compete on a level playing field.”

Sullivan also addressed industry complaints, particularly those made during the last administration (see 2004070024), that the U.S. didn’t seek enough feedback from companies before announcing regulatory or policy changes. He urged both businesses and universities to “partner with us” to craft technology competition policy.

“We’re never going to be as nimble as industry. We’re never going to be as deep as academia,” Sullivan said. “We are not gonna be getting everything right the first time. Not every investment will pan out, not every threat will be captured in our first play. But we will adjust and self-correct. We’ll pick ourselves up, and we’ll do better.”