House China Competition Bill Proposes New Sanctions, Export Controls

The House’s America Competes Act of 2022 proposes a host of export control and sanctions provisions, including new restrictions on exports of electronic waste-related goods, designations targeting China and a repeal of the sunset of a human rights sanctions authority. The bill, unveiled this week as the response to the Senate’s U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, would also require the Biden administration to conduct “periodic” reviews of its export control lists to better protect critical technologies and would urge the administration to reexamine U.S. export policies for countries that supply weapons to terrorist organizations.

One provision would introduce new export restrictions on entities that ship “electronic waste items,” with a strict exemption process, according to a bill summary. Other measures in the House version align with the Senate's bill, including one provision that would require the U.S. to impose new sanctions against people or entities involved in “systematic rape, coercive abortion, forced sterilization, or involuntary contraceptive implantation” in China’s Xinjiang region. Another measure in both the House and Senate version would revise certain congressional reporting requirements under the Global Human Rights Accountability Act and would repeal the law’s sunset provision, nixing the need for continued congressional authorization of the often-used sanctions regime.

The bill also urges the Biden administration to better harmonize its export control and sanctions policies with allies and calls for more frequent reviews of those policies, partly to ensure China isn’t acquiring sensitive U.S. technologies.