The Biden administration is looking to place new export controls on sensitive technologies destined for China, according to a Feb. 10 Reuters report, continuing a trend of technology controls begun under the Trump administration. But the U.S. hopes to better coordinate with allies on those controls instead of imposing unilateral restrictions that may damage the competitiveness of U.S. companies, the report said. A senior administration official told Reuters the U.S. is still reviewing Trump-era policies toward China and there may be areas of “continuity” on certain issues. “One of them is to ensure that we are not supplying highly sensitive technology that can advance China’s military capabilities. We will be bearing down on that,” the official said. The White House didn’t comment.
Exports to China
While the World Trade Organization faces multiple crises, including COVID-19 vaccine export control threats and massive trade wars, the institution's Deputy Director-General Alan Wolff delivered a 10-item agenda for moving forward. Speaking Feb. 9 at a Washington International Trade Association conference, Wolff said the WTO will be judged by “how well it deals with the crises of our time,” saying it must “demonstrate soon and visibly that it can deliver on subjects relevant to all those who engage in international trade or are affected by it ... pretty much everyone.”
Ambassadors from the United Kingdom, Brazil, the European Union and Australia discussed on a Feb. 8 panel how to improve trading relationships with the U.S. and deal with the challenge China poses to the international trading system but had no insights into how to make breakthroughs on either.
A panel of scholars and a former general consul in Hong Kong agreed that the Biden administration is likely to place more emphasis on export controls and industrial policy to support domestic semiconductor production, and less on the trade deficit and tariffs, even as the new president has to decide what to do about Section 301 tariffs at some point. They were speaking on a virtual panel about U.S.-China relations hosted by the Washington International Trade Association on Feb. 8.
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Three Republican senators asked President Joe Biden’s commerce secretary nominee to clarify whether she would consider removing Huawei from the Entity List, saying such a move would hurt U.S. competitiveness. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Ben Sasse of Nebraska said they were concerned when Gina Raimondo declined to tell lawmakers last month whether she would remove export restrictions from Huawei or other Chinese companies (see 2101260047). They also said they will oppose the confirmation of other Biden nominees if they do not outline a clearer, tougher stance on Huawei and other Chinese companies.
The Bureau of Industry and Security fined a Singapore-based electronics and software distributor more than $3 million and suspended its export privileges for violating the Export Administration Regulations, which included illegal exports to China and Iran, according to a Jan. 29 order. BIS said Avnet Asia Pte., Ltd. committed 53 EAR violations over several years when it sold export-controlled electronic components totaling more than $1 million. The Justice Department also charged Chinese national Cheng Bo, a former Avnet Asia employee, for participating in a conspiracy to violate U.S. export laws.
Economics Professor Mary Lovely, who studies multinationals' operations in China, told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that the trade war didn't make the U.S. less reliant on China, and that export controls designed to isolate China have not been effective, either. She noted that China is still the top exporter to the U.S., and their goods make up 17% of U.S. imports. The Commission met online Jan. 28.
Gina Raimondo, President Joe Biden’s nominee for commerce secretary, declined to say whether she plans to keep Huawei and other Chinese technology companies on the Entity List but made clear that Commerce will aggressively tackle illegal Chinese trade practices and human rights abuses. Speaking before the Senate Commerce Committee Jan. 26, Raimondo told lawmakers that the agency won’t make decisions on Chinese trade restrictions until completing a sweeping review of the measures and assessing their impact on U.S. national security (see 2101250049). “The President has been clear that we need to step back and review broadly our trade policies as it relates to China,” Raimondo said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is working on several new proposed rules for emerging technologies and is still sifting through industry comments on potential controls for surveillance technologies, the agency said in its 2020 report to Congress this month. Along with its work on emerging technologies last year, the agency said it nearly doubled its civil penalties from 2019, processed about 3,000 more export license applications, and met with a range of trading partners and multilateral export regimes to discuss improvements to export controls.