The U.S. and the EU this week plan to announce a range of new initiatives through the Trade and Technology Council, including more collaboration on export controls and additional efforts to secure semiconductor supply chains, a senior administration official said. The official, speaking to reporters May 13 ahead of the TTC's second meeting May 15-16 in Paris, said the two sides will “deepen the partnership and announce a number of key outcomes.”
Companies should expect the Commerce Department to add more entities to the Entity List for aiding Russia amid its war in Ukraine, said Thea Kendler, the agency’s assistant secretary for export administration. Commerce has so far added more than 100 entities to the list for supporting the Russian and Belarusian militaries (see 2204040006). Kendler, speaking during a May 12 Materials and Equipment Technical Advisory Committee meeting, said the agency is looking at entities in both Russia and Belarus "that may be contributing to the military industrial complex."
The U.S. and EU should use the upcoming Trade and Technology Council meeting to further harmonize their export controls and strengthen cooperation in semiconductor supply chains, the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU (AmCham EU) said in May 10 recommendations. While government officials have said the two sides have already surpassed some of the TTC’s short-term goals (see 2204130045), the chamber said it can still make progress outlining “clear deliverables” and better defining the scope of the council’s working groups.
Adding sanctions on Chinese surveillance company Hikvision would represent a “profound escalation” of U.S.-China technology tensions, prompt retaliation from China and further accelerate economic decoupling, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said May 6. The sanctions, reportedly under consideration by the Biden administration (see 2205040009), could “vault Hikvision past Huawei to become the most-sanctioned Chinese tech company,” the think tank said.
The U.S.-China competition will be the “geopolitical challenge for this generation,” Cordell Hull, principal at WestExec Advisors, told an online symposium May 5 on Indo-Pacific geopolitics hosted jointly by the Asia programs of the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) and the Wilson Center. “I certainly hope it can be managed,” and that it “doesn’t lead us into places where neither country really wants to go,” he said.
PHILADELPHIA -- The Bureau of Industry and Security is leaning toward new export controls on brain computer interface technologies despite urging from industry to avoid the restrictions altogether. Thea Kendler, BIS assistant secretary for export administration, said BCI technology has too many potential “nefarious” uses to not be subject to at least some restrictions.
The Biden administration is planning new human rights sanctions against Chinese surveillance company Hikvision, the Financial Times reported May 4. Although the administration hasn’t yet made a “final decision” on the controls, the move would represent the “first time the U.S. has imposed such sanctions on a big Chinese technology group,” the report said. The move could have “far-reaching consequences” on companies that deal with Hikvision, the report said. Hikvision is the world’s largest surveillance equipment manufacturer. The White House didn’t comment. Hikvision was designated a Chinese military company and added to an investment ban list in 2020 (see 2011130026), and was added to the Entity List in 2019 (see 1910070076).
PHILADELPHIA -- The U.S. government is working through a range of challenges when delivering export control guidance to university researchers, government officials said, including to some colleges that opt out of certain projects rather than risk violating controls. The government is also still running into challenging questions about whether its controls should apply to fundamental research, one official said.
Israel’s Defense Ministry is granting fewer export licenses to the country’s spyware companies amid mounting pressure from the U.S., according to an April 25 report from Globes, an Israeli business news site. The report said Israeli company Nemesis was forced to shut down last month after the country’s Defense Export Control Agency refused to grant it export licenses, and other industry executives have complained about an “abrupt change in policy” toward companies exporting spyware. Other companies -- including NSO Group, Cognyte, QuaDream and Wintego -- are on a “short list” of businesses that have struggled in recent months from a “lack of approvals for new deals and cancellation of export permits that have expired,” the report said.
The Commerce Department is investigating U.S. software company Synopsys for possibly violating U.S. export controls against China, Bloomberg reported April 13. Commerce is looking into whether Synopsys, the world’s leading supplier of semiconductor design software, worked with Chinese affiliates to provide chip designs and software to Huawei Technologies’ HiSilicon unit for manufacture at Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, the report said. Both companies are subject to Entity List licensing restrictions.