New frequently asked questions on the Bureau of Industry and Security's October China chip controls are “almost through their clearance process,” Sharron Cook, a BIS official, said during a Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting this week. “Those should be up shortly,” she said.
Ian Cohen
Ian Cohen, Deputy Managing Editor, is a reporter with Export Compliance Daily and its sister publications International Trade Today and Trade Law Daily, where he covers export controls, sanctions and international trade issues. He previously worked as a local government reporter in South Florida. Ian graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Florida in 2017 and lives in Washington, D.C. He joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2019.
The EU is “assessing” whether to create an outbound investment screening regime, which could help it address “gaps” in its dual-use export controls, Valdis Dombrovskis, the bloc’s top trade official, told the European Parliament this week. “We're currently at the exploratory stage,” he said.
The Commerce Department this week released proposed “guardrails” for recipients of Chips Act funding, which could restrict how the funding is used in certain countries and align the guardrails with export restrictions. The proposed rule would block funding recipients from pursuing certain chip investments in China and other “foreign countries of concern,” restrict them from participating in certain research or technology licensing efforts with those countries, prevent the funding from being provided to companies on the Entity List and more, Commerce said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is preparing to publish a proposed rule that would expand the agency’s restrictions on certain activities that support foreign military, security or intelligence services. The rule, expected next week, would implement a provision in the FY 2023 defense spending bill that one lawmaker hailed as the “largest expansion of presidential export control authority in several years” (see 2212210032).
Trade lawyers are expecting a sharp increase in DOJ export control and sanctions prosecutions in the coming months as the agency’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section undergoes a hiring spree, and several law firms said the increased attention on sanctions violations may cause some companies to bolster their compliance programs.
The U.S. needs to reform the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to allow it to more easily share controlled technologies with the U.K., Australia and other close allies (see 2302170022), experts said last week. If Congress and the administration don’t move quickly to relax ITAR restrictions, the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership will fail, they said, and U.S. military capabilities could fall behind China and other countries.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is relaxing its licensing policy for certain satellite exports, a change that could have a “major” impact on satellite industry sales, Commerce Deputy Secretary Don Graves said. As part of the change, BIS will review export applications for satellites and satellite components intended to go to Missile Technology Control Regime countries on a case-by-case review policy instead of a presumption of denial, Graves said.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. is placing a significant focus on investments that could present data or cybersecurity risks, said CFIUS head Paul Rosen and FBI official Cynthia Kaiser. Rosen also said CFIUS continues to actively pursue non-notified deals and said the administration is still discussing the idea of an outbound investment review regime.
The Census Bureau and CBP this week announced new reporting requirements for exporters sending certain chip-related items to China under a temporary general license or “authorization letter” from the Bureau of Industry and Security. Electronic filers of export information must now use one of Census’ two new license codes in the Automated Export System when using a BIS authorization that exempts them from certain licensing requirements under the agency’s sweeping China chip controls released in October (see 2210070049).
Democrats and Republicans applauded the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership announcement this week, saying the delivery of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia will help shore up security in the Indo-Pacific 2303130035). But lawmakers also said the U.S. should do more to make sure it can easily share sensitive technology within the group, adding that they would support legislation that would revise U.S. defense export regulations.