BIS to Issue Chip Control Corrections Next Month, Extend Comment Deadline, Officials Say

Exporters will have at least another month to digest the Bureau of Industry and Security's recently updated semiconductor export controls before the agency issues clarifications and corrections.

BIS is planning to release a rule tweaking both of the updated chip control rules in January, agency official Sharron Cook said during a Dec. 12 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. Those tweaks are expected to clarify several control issues that exporters brought to the attention of BIS since it released the updated restrictions on Oct. 17 (see 2310170055). It will also correct specific provisions that “may not have fully hit the mark we intended,” Thea Kendler, the agency’s assistant secretary for export administration, said last month (see 2311060067).

BIS also is planning to extend the public comment period for both rules, Hillary Hess, director of the BIS regulatory policy division, said during the meeting. The comment periods are scheduled to end Dec. 18 (see 2310180005), but Hess said the agency will extend both for 30 days. Cook said the Office of the Federal Register is reviewing the extensions for those rules "as we speak,” and they should be published soon.