In their first official statements at the Bureau of Industry and Security, the agency’s two newest export control officials singled out China and Russia and said they plan to prioritize enforcement work involving human rights.
China’s Ministry of Commerce recently launched a website dedicated to information about its newly established export control regime, according to an unofficial translation. It features updates about the regulations, compliance training materials, a landing page to check whether a dual-use item is covered by the controls and various guidance documents, including a section on licensing. The website was released alongside China’s new export control white paper, which details how the country has sought to increase export enforcement, coordinate restrictions with allies and improve industry compliance (see 2112290036).
The Wassenaar Arrangement last week published export control changes agreed to by member states during the 2021 plenary. The changes include new controls for “computer-assisted-design software tools for high-end components” and “new classes of metallic and organic substrates used in highly sophisticated applications,” the plenary chair said in a Dec. 23 statement. The changes also include some “relaxed” controls, including loosened restrictions on “fluorinated silicon fluids, metal working parameters for commercial applications, the performance level of High-Performance Computers and multi-mode lasers and radars used in automotive anti-collision applications.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security is still reviewing export controls on facial recognition software, surveillance-related products and other goods controlled for crime-control reasons after requesting feedback on the potential restrictions in July 2020, said Hillary Hess, BIS’s regulatory policy director. Although no new restrictions have been announced, Hess said new controls for items described in the rule, including crime-control goods that may be used for human rights abuses, are still being considered. “We have been looking at that,” Hess said during a Dec. 14 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. “It’s definitely on our plate.” In the 2020 rule, BIS solicited feedback on possibly imposing new licensing requirements for biometric systems for surveillance, non-lethal visual disruption lasers, long-range acoustic devices and other surveillance-related technologies and goods (see 2007160021). In comments, several technology companies warned BIS against imposing overly broad, unilateral export restrictions that could hurt U.S. competitiveness, while a human rights advocacy group and a U.S. lawmaker called for new export restrictions and suggested existing controls should be strengthened (see 2010090044).
The White House announced a new multilateral export control initiative this week to curb the proliferation of dual-use technologies used for human rights abuses (see 2112020073). Under the effort, which the White House called the Export Controls and Human Rights Initiative, the U.S. will work with “like-minded partners” to determine how export controls can better “monitor” and “restrict” sensitive technologies. The effort will help “reduce the potential for countries to abuse new technologies, including surveillance technologies,” President Joe Biden said Dec. 9 at the U.S.’s virtual Summit for Democracy (see 2112070050). Biden said countries attending the summit will convene again next year to show they followed through on their various commitments, including the export control effort.
The Commerce and State departments completed interagency reviews of final rules that would revise export controls for goods destined to Cambodia. Commerce’s rule would revise certain restrictions for Cambodia under the Export Administration Regulations, while the State Department would add Cambodia to its list of proscribed countries in the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Both agencies sent their respective rules for interagency review Nov. 16 (see 2111170014) and completed them Dec. 1.
The Biden administration plans to work closer with trading partners to tighten export controls around surveillance tools and other technologies used by authoritarian governments for human rights abuses, according to a Dec. 2 report in The Wall Street Journal. The U.S. hopes to work with a number of countries to establish a “code of conduct” on export licensing policies for surveillance goods, administration officials said this week, and will encourage information sharing on sensitive technologies that are used against political dissidents, human rights activists and journalists.
The Commerce Department and the State Department are considering final rules that would revise export controls for goods destined to Cambodia. Under its final rule, Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security would revise certain restrictions for Cambodia under the Export Administration Regulations, while the State Department would add Cambodia to its list of proscribed countries in the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Both agencies sent their respective rules for interagency review Nov. 16.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Nov. 12 issued a new 16-page guidance on its recently issued export controls on certain cybersecurity items, which take effect Jan. 19 (see 2110200036). The guidance includes 29 frequently asked questions on how the items will be controlled, how BIS defines certain control terms, when licenses are required for cybersecurity exports and more. The FAQs also define the term “government end-user” under new License Exception Authorized Cybersecurity Exports (ACE), and list situations when a license requirement is triggered for cybersecurity exports, when universities may need a license for teaching and training, and when certain carve-outs apply.
Qualcomm supports “targeted and rule-based export controls” as one of several long-term federal policy recommendations for curing the semiconductor shortage, the chipmaker told the Bureau of Industry and Security in comments posted Nov. 10. Washington should “control emerging technologies,” consistent with the 2018 Export Control Reform Act, by imposing targeted and rule-based export controls and avoid disrupting semiconductor supply, especially in legacy node chipsets,” Qualcomm said. “Unilateral controls would only hinder Qualcomm and other U.S. companies from selling in foreign markets, undermining their R&D investments and disadvantaging them against their foreign competitors.” Some international rivals already have “both the technology capability and funding to develop global leadership in these areas,” it said. Submissions to BIS were due Nov. 8 for the agency's September request for information as it prepares a report to the White House on the chip shortage and semiconductor supply chain issues (see 2109230018).