A bipartisan group of four House members, including Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, introduced a bill last week that they said would help the Bureau of Industry and Security control exports of artificial intelligence systems and other new national security-related technologies.
Chip export news
The House Select Committee on China announced last week it has begun investigating Georgia Institute of Technology’s research collaboration with China’s Tianjin University, which has “significant ties” to China's military and has been on the Commerce Department’s Entity List since 2020 (see 2012180039).
The Biden administration, which announced in August 2023 that it would develop restrictions on outbound investment in China (see 2308090066), expects to finalize the new regulations by the end of calendar year 2024, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said May 8.
China on May 7 voiced its opposition to the U.S. reportedly revoking the export licenses that Intel and Qualcomm use to sell certain semiconductors to Huawei (see 2405070081). The Ministry of Commerce said the move violates World Trade Organization commitments, according to an unofficial translation.
The Bureau of Industry and Security needs more help from companies to stop Russia from acquiring export controlled semiconductors and other microelectronics, Matthew Axelrod, the agency’s top export enforcement official, said May 8 during a semiconductor summit hosted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. The joint Commerce Department-DOJ Disruptive Technology Strike Force has helped the government pool resources to investigate and prosecute export control violations, “but even this impactful coordinated effort across government enforcement agencies is, by itself, insufficient to meet the national security moment we’re facing,” Axelrod said. “[F]rankly, we need everyone to do more.”
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The U.S. will struggle to compete technologically with China unless it continues to loosen trade barriers around sensitive technologies for a broader range of allies outside just the U.K. and Australia, Mike Gallagher, a former member of Congress, said this week.
The Commerce Department has revoked export licenses used by Intel and Qualcomm to sell certain semiconductors to Huawei, the Financial Times reported May 7. The report said the companies used the licenses to sell chips for Huawei’s laptops and mobile phones. A Commerce spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment but told the Financial Times that the agency “continuously” assesses its export controls, and “as part of this process, as we have done in the past, we sometimes revoke export licenses.”
A bipartisan group of four House members introduced a bill last week they said would close an export control loophole that has allowed China to access advanced U.S. computing chips remotely.
Aggressive new U.S. export controls on advanced computing chips and the equipment to manufacture them are having unintended side effects and may be causing more harm than good for Western companies, a Brussels-based think-tank said.