Senate Republicans Seek Fix for 'Lax' Enforcement of Huawei Restrictions

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker of Mississippi and seven other Republicans urged the Commerce Department Monday to beef up its enforcement of restrictions on U.S. exports to Huawei and other companies on the Bureau of Industry and Security’s entity list, citing what they consider insufficient implementation. Huawei has been on the entity list since May 2019 (see 1905210013). The House Foreign Affairs Committee revealed last month BIS approved $100 billion-plus worth of export licenses for shipments to Huawei and top Chinese chipmaker SMIC from Nov. 9, 2020, through April 20 (see 2110220019). Commerce’s “lax enforcement” of its Foreign Direct Product Rule “has the effect of incentivizing other tech-focused companies throughout the supply chain to jeopardize our country’s security by transacting with Entity List companies like Huawei,” the GOP senators wrote Secretary Gina Raimondo. “Unless BIS enforces this rule with the speed the situation necessitates, additional suppliers of sensitive technology will likely engage in unlawful trade practices with companies closely connected to adversarial governments.” The lawmakers encouraged Raimondo to act “to ensure that BIS is equipped to enforce the full arsenal of the Department’s export control regulations -- and meet the challenges posed by this precarious moment -- considering the harms to national security they are intended to prevent.” BIS didn’t comment.