The Biden administration could first release its outbound investment screening regime as a trial period and then expand the restrictions to cover broader investments after the initial year, said Anna Ashton, director of China corporate affairs at the Eurasia Group. Ashton, speaking during an April 21 event hosted by the University of Virginia's Miller Center, also said current U.S. chips subsidies will fall far short of making up for lost U.S semiconductor exports to China, while other experts said they fear U.S. chip export controls (see 2210070049) will continue to cause foreign companies to “design-out” American technology and software.
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 U.S. should work with China in select artificial intelligence areas instead of imposing sweeping export controls that create financial incentives for companies to “design-out” U.S. technology, Paul Scharre, vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security, said in an April 18 opinion article for Time Magazine. While current U.S. restrictions on semiconductors exports to China are “narrowly targeted,” he said they will “de facto grow over time as chips advance and the threshold for export controls remains the same.”
House lawmakers are working on legislation they say could lift some of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations’ burdensome technology sharing restrictions, including controls limiting trade with the U.S.’ closest allies. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Tex., said the bill could create an ITAR exemption for technology transfers under the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) partnership, among other changes.
The U.S. is still “considering” a new outbound investment screening regime, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said this week, stressing that any restrictions would be “narrowly scoped and targeted to clear objectives.”
CBP should implement a “standardized national process” for vehicle exports across U.S. ports, said Brian Barber, vice president of U.S. brokerage operations and government affairs at Willson International. Barber, speaking this week during CBP’s Trade Facilitation and Cargo Security Summit, said a more streamlined process could help brokers keep track of various vehicle export procedures.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on April 19 fined Seagate Technology $300 million for violating U.S. export controls against Huawei in what it said is the “largest standalone administrative penalty in BIS history.” The agency said the California-based company and its branch in Singapore sold more than 7 million export-controlled hard disk drives to Huawei in violation of the BIS foreign direct product rule.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week proposed new export controls on automated peptide synthesizers that may be used to produce biological weapons (see 2304170010). Although several U.S. companies and a Chinese academy last year warned BIS against imposing new license requirements, the agency said the synthesizers qualify as emerging or foundational technologies and may need to be restricted.
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a new set of policy "clarifications" this week that it hopes will increase the number of voluntary self-disclosures (VSDs) it receives for serious export violations. One clarification says the agency could increase penalties on companies that fail to disclose a “significant” potential violation, while another clarification could reward companies that tip off BIS about their competitors’ wrongdoings.
DOJ this week announced a $365,000 settlement with General Motors over claims that the car maker -- in an attempt to comply with U.S. export control laws -- discriminated against non-U.S. citizens in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The agency also released a fact sheet to help employers avoid citizenship status discrimination when seeking to comply with export control laws.
The U.S. this week warned ship owners and service providers of new “deceptive practices” being used by Russia to evade the oil price cap, particularly for oil exported through the Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline and ports on the eastern coast of Russia. Shippers, traders and others should watch for several red flags to avoid helping Russia evade the cap, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said in an April 17 alert.