The Commerce Department published its fall 2020 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security, including new mentions of rules to amend Hong Kong under the Export Administration Regulations, releases of controlled technologies to standards setting bodies and a range of new technology controls.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa recently launched the African Trade Exchange (ATEX), a trade platform designed to facilitate trade when the African Continental Free Trade Area begins in 2021 (see 2004290042), the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Dec. 7. ATEX will be a business-to-business “e‑commerce platform,” the report said, and will give companies access to “high quality products from verified African suppliers in an efficient way.” ATEX buyers and sellers will also be able to use the platform to search for new supply chain partners, review “specifications and pricing” for products, and make payments and arrange “logistical services.”
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer Dec. 9 announced that he'll be seeking consultations with Mary Ng, his Canadian counterpart, over the way that Canada allocated tariff rate quotas. Canadian processors are guaranteed a percentage of those import quotas, and the U.S. says that undermines American producers' access to Canada. “President [Donald] Trump successfully renegotiated the USMCA to replace the failed NAFTA, and a key improvement was to give U.S. dairy producers fairer access to Canada’s highly protected dairy market,” he said. “We are disappointed that Canada’s policies have made this first ever enforcement action under the USMCA necessary to ensure compliance with the agreement.”
Doug Hassebrock, the Bureau of Industry and Security's top enforcement official responsible for national security issues, retired last month. Hassebrock served as the deputy assistant secretary for export enforcement and left in early November, BIS official Hillary Hess said during a Dec. 8 Commerce Department technical advisory committee meeting. Kevin Kurland, director of BIS’s Office of Export Analysis, is acting in Hassebrock’s role, Hess said. A BIS spokesperson didn’t comment.
The U.S. affiliate of one of the world’s largest energy trading firms will pay more than $150 million in fines after it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Justice Department said Dec. 3. The company, Vitol Inc., paid millions of dollars in bribes to Brazilian officials and conspired to bribe officials in Ecuador and Mexico, the Justice Department said. The schemes involved fake consulting agreements, shell companies and more than $8 million in bribes.
The Census Bureau received a mixed bag of feedback as it considers whether to eliminate certain filing requirements for exports to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (see 2009160033). Many of the U.S. industry groups that submitted comments, released by Census Dec. 2, said the Automated Export System filings are a burden for their members and their elimination is long overdue. But government officials from both the U.S. and Puerto Rico cautioned Census about removing the requirements, saying it could lead to an absence of a vital source of data collection and damage the islands’ economies.
The Bureau of Industry and Security should apply the “minimal” necessary level of export controls on foundational technologies to prevent impacts on U.S. academic research, universities said in comments to the agency. BIS also should reexamine which technologies it defines as “emerging” because some are already commercially widespread, a British aerospace company said.
The U.S. and its allies should come to an international agreement on reviewing incoming and outgoing Chinese investment to make sure those deals are not enabling human rights abuses or funding Chinese military and technological advances, said H.R. McMaster, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser. The Joe Biden administration will have a chance to secure such an agreement if it pursues more multilateral cooperation with allies, McMaster said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU and the U.S. should work together to set rules on carbon pricing, 5G, 6G, artificial intelligence, intellectual property rights and forced technology transfer so that others don't make the rules, and they have to live with them. At the Council on Foreign Relations webinar Nov. 20, von der Leyen said managing 5G isn't just about security of hardware or software, “it is also about our values and our democracies.” She said the Trans-Atlantic Partnership should address “the illiberal use of these technologies by China and others.”
The Congressional Research Service issued a report Oct. 26 on U.S. semiconductor policy and global competition, including an analysis of the semiconductor supply chain, the current industry landscape and semiconductor-related legislation. Congress has introduced multiple bills to provide federal funding and incentives for the semiconductor industry (see 2007240010), but questions remain about how large federal tax benefits should be, how much the federal government should invest in research and development, and how long the funding and incentives should be sustained, the CRS said. The U.S. should also consider how partners and adversaries would respond to moves such as federal investment in R&D-related activities such as workforce training or federal spending to “ensure a domestic production source for some or all national security applications,” and whether the efforts should be made in collaboration with other “like-minded” countries “to incentivize R&D and supply chains and to counter China’s state-led policies.”