US 'Optimistic' EU Will Align on China Export Controls, Raimondo Says at TTC

The U.S. and the EU announced new export control initiatives during the Trade and Technology Council’s meetings this week, including a pilot program to better exchange information on dual-use export controls and a new effort to increase research collaboration on quantum technologies. But the U.S. didn’t use the meetings to try to convince European officials to push its firms, such as ASML, to adopt more stringent chip export controls against China, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

Raimondo said “some of the most important impactful work coming” out of the TTC, including at the Dec. 5 meeting at the University of Maryland, “relates to how we're aligning on semiconductors.” But even though the U.S. is trying to convince its allies to adopt similar China export controls on certain sensitive chip technology and equipment (see 2210070049 and 2210270047), Raimondo said TTC officials didn't discuss specific European companies that are shipping to China.

“While we did not talk specifically today about ASML, we did speak extensively about export controls generally as it relates to semiconductors, and I think the TTC will play a very important role in aligning export control strategy,” Raimondo said during a news conference. She said the U.S. is “continuing to work daily, weekly” with the Netherlands about ASML’s exports, adding that “we are optimistic that we will be able to align” our export controls.

Raimondo added that the TTC has been speaking “extensively” on ways to increase its coordination in the semiconductor industry. That includes the work “we're doing both defensively around export controls, but even more importantly, offensively,” she said. “How do we work together to support the entire supply chain, the whole ecosystem of chips? And so that's another area of discussion that we've been talking about.”

In a joint statement and fact sheet, the U.S. and the EU said they have launched a “pilot exchange” to find ways both sides can “simplify transatlantic trade” of dual-use technologies while also “ensuring appropriate protection against misuse.” They are also sharing export control best-practices “with a view to promoting the consistent application of sanction-related export restrictions targeting Russia and Belarus through regular information exchange, including regarding authorization and denial decisions.”

Although both the U.S. and the EU have imposed a broad set of Russian sanctions and trade restrictions, they both committed to do more. “We resolve to continue to impose severe and immediate costs on Russia and hold it accountable for its brutal war against Ukraine, including through unprecedented cooperation on sanctions-related export restrictions, and countering Russian disinformation,” the statement said.

The U.S. and the EU also said they want to “explore coordinated actions to foster diversification” in their supply chains. “The United States and the European Union recognize that the concentration of resources in key supply chains can expose our economies to challenging disruptions.”

The two sides are also working closer together on adopting the same multilateral export control list revisions, the statement said, continuing to consult on new regulatory actions and planning export control outreach with other allies. They have taken similar steps around investment screening and said they wanted to “underscore the importance of comprehensive, robust foreign investment screening mechanisms on both sides of the Atlantic in order to address risks to national security.” They plan to hold a public stakeholder outreach event for the TTC’s Investment Screening Working Group later this month.

As part of a new initiative to bolster emerging technology research efforts, the U.S. and the EU also said they plan to create an “expert task force” to “reduce barriers” to research collaboration on quantum information science and technology. U.S. universities and researchers have sometimes struggled to comply with export license requirements (see 2211220032).

The task force will help the TTC develop frameworks for “assessing technology readiness, discuss intellectual property, and export control-related issues as appropriate, and work together to advance international standards,” the TTC said. This council could establish similar task forces in other emerging technology areas, it said.

Other initiatives include a new “early warning system” to address semiconductor supply chain issues. The system, first announced as a pilot in May (see 2205160033), will include regular meetings between the two sides in a bid to get ahead of chip supply chain issues before they start.

The two sides hope the coordination improves “our understanding of forecasted global semiconductor demand to inform our common policy objective of avoiding over capacity and bottlenecks,” they said. “For this purpose, we expect to meet regularly and share information on demand forecast methodologies.”