The Bureau of Industry and Security is studying ways it can place potential export controls on access to advanced open-source software, including artificial intelligence-powered models similar to ChatGPT-4, as well as certain cloud computing services, BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez said. Although Estevez said no controls are imminent, the agency is working to form a set of export control policy options to address both.
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.
U.S. export controls will slow China’s innovation efforts, but they'll never “stop” the country from advancing technologically, Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez said.
Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez called this week for more funding from Congress, suggesting BIS may need a substantially increased annual budget to more effectively implement and enforce export controls against China and other countries.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week released a host of export control changes designed to ease license requirements and expand license exceptions for certain exports of pathogens and toxins, crime-control goods and missile technology items to U.S. allies. The agency also proposed changes to License Exception Strategic Trade Authorization (STA) to try to convince more exporters to use the exception.
New analysis from Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology includes a table of more than 100 types of semiconductors and whether they’re subject to U.S. export licensing requirements. CSET also said a new red flag recently published by the Bureau of Industry and Security could cause foundries to ask more questions of customers seeking to produce advanced chips.
The U.S. this week announced new sanctions and export controls against a host of companies and people for violating export restrictions against Russia, including a Belgian businessman and his defense component procurement network. Along with new Treasury Department sanctions, DOJ said it was preparing to release two indictments against the man, Hans De Geetere, and the Bureau of Industry and Security added De Geetere, his affiliated companies and other unrelated parties to the Entity List for illegally supplying Russia’s military and defense industrial base.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee is pushing CBP to roll out its long-awaited electronic export manifest within the next COAC term and make progress on aligning truck manifests with both Canada and Mexico to streamline exports traveling by land.
The U.S. will increasingly look to apply new export licensing requirements to entire countries rather than to specific companies, which could lead to a shift away from the Entity List, Commerce Secretary Gina Riamondo said. She also said the agency will continue targeting new artificial intelligence-related products developed by American semiconductor companies, such as Nvidia, that fall just below U.S. export control thresholds.
The U.S. should place export controls and investment restrictions on Chinese drone maker Autel Robotics, which has ties to the country’s military and uses parts from at least one other Chinese company on the Entity List, the leaders of the House Select Committee on China said in a letter last week to the Biden administration. The lawmakers also said they’re concerned that the Chinese government uses Autel’s technology for human rights abuses in Xinjiang and that the company sells its products to Russia.
End-use certificates can be a good way to mitigate some sanctions and export control risk, but “it doesn't necessarily make the risk completely disappear,” said Jan Dunin-Wasowicz, a Hughes Hubbard trade lawyer. Dunin-Wasowicz cautioned companies about relying solely on end-use and end-user statements when conducting due diligence, adding that companies can take other compliance steps to vet a transaction, especially because some customers are willing to lie about a product's end-use.