US-China Announce Export Control Information Sharing Effort

The U.S. and China launched a new commercial trade working group and a new pathway to exchange information on export control enforcement, two initiatives to allow the countries to better communicate around sensitive trade issues, the Commerce Department announced during meetings between Washington and Beijing officials this week. The export enforcement information sharing initiative, which will meet for the first time this week, is aimed at reducing “misunderstanding” surrounding U.S. policies toward China, Commerce said, including export restrictions on critical and sensitive technologies.

The announcement was made after an Aug. 28 meeting between Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, one of several planned meetings Raimondo has in China this week during a trip the U.S. hopes will cool trade and geopolitical tensions between the two sides. The trip comes almost a year after Commerce announced sweeping new export controls on a range of semiconductor-related shipments and services involving China (see 2210070049), and less than a month after President Joe Biden signed an executive order that will eventually lead to new outbound investment restrictions on three Chinese technology sectors (see 2308090066).

Commerce said the two sides agreed this week to create an export control enforcement information sharing effort, which will “serve as a platform to reduce misunderstanding of U.S. national security policies,” Commerce said. The first in-person meeting of this effort will take place at the assistant secretary level at Beijing’s Ministry of Commerce Aug. 29. Although the two sides didn’t announce who will attend the meeting, the Bureau of Industry and Security’s top export enforcement official, Matthew Axelrod, accompanied Raimondo on the China trip.

The U.S. and China also agreed to establish a new “commercial issues working group,” which Commerce called a “consultation mechanism that will allow U.S. and Chinese government officials, as well as industry representatives, to “seek solutions on trade and investment issues.” The working group also will look to “advance U.S. commercial interests in China.” The group will meet twice annually, with the U.S. hosting the first meeting early next year.

They also agreed to bring together American and Chinese “subject matter experts” to “hold technical discussions” on “strengthening the protection of trade secrets and confidential business information during administrative licensing proceedings.” The two governments also will communicate “regularly at the Secretary and Minister level about commercial and economic issues” and agreed to meet in person at least once every year.

Despite the commitments, Commerce said Raimondo “reinforced” to Beijing the Biden administration’s “commitment to taking actions necessary to protect U.S. national security.” She referred to the “small yard, high fence” concept -- the administration’s strategy of placing strict export licensing requirements around a narrow set of sensitive technologies -- and stressed that “export controls are narrowly targeted at technologies that have clear national security or human rights impacts and are not about containing China’s economic growth.”

The announcement comes 10 days after Republicans urged the administration against meeting with Beijing to discuss export controls, saying it would be "deeply inappropriate” for Raimondo to form a working group with China that includes talks on sensitive technologies (see 2308180040).