The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking feedback on potential export controls for brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies, which may be added to the Commerce Control List as an emerging technology and face new restrictions and license requirements. The agency is specifically seeking comments on whether feasible and effective controls can be imposed on BCI technologies, which include “neural-controlled interfaces, mind-machine interfaces, direct neural interfaces and brain-machine interfaces,” according to an advance notice of proposed rulemaking. Comments are due Dec. 10.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee's release of export licensing information for Huawei and China’s chipmaker SMIC (see 2110210073) may not present an accurate picture of licensing approvals and may mislead industry, the Commerce Department said Oct. 22. Although the agency approved more than a combined $100 billion worth of export licenses for shipments to Huawei and SMIC from November 2020 through April, the statistics didn’t reflect pending applications set to be denied, which would have significantly lowered the percentage of approved applications for both companies.
Export controls may prevent some hurdles in the investment and development of emerging quantum computing technologies, the Government Accountability Office said in an Oct. 19 report. Controls may limit some U.S. trade, prevent U.S. quantum technology companies from collaborating with other countries and deter U.S. firms from employing highly skilled foreign workers, the GAO said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security approved more than a combined $100 billion worth of export licenses for shipments to Huawei and Chinese top chipmaker SMIC from November 9, 2020, through April 20, 2021, according to documents released Oct. 21 by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. BIS said it approved 113 licenses for Huawei -- about 70% of the total license applications it received -- for more than $61 billion worth of goods during that time period. The agency also approved 188 licenses for SMIC -- about 90% of the total it received -- for more than $41 billion worth of exports.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is proposing to clarify and expand restrictions on using License Exception Strategic Trade Authorization (see 2109130013), which it hopes will reduce exporter “confusion” and better control certain sensitive technologies, BIS said Oct. 21.
The Bureau of Industry and Security will issue new export controls on certain cybersecurity items and create a new license exception for those exports, BIS said in an interim final rule released Oct. 20. The rule, which will align U.S. cybersecurity restrictions with controls previously agreed to at the multilateral Wassenaar Arrangement, will establish more restrictions on certain items that can be used for “malicious cyber activities” by imposing a license requirement for shipments to certain countries, BIS said. The changes take effect Jan. 19, and BIS will accept public comments until Dec. 6.
Weak U.S. export controls and licensing policies may have contributed to China's reported development of nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Oct. 18. McCaul said he warned the Commerce Department to place stricter controls on China’s Phytium Technologies -- a company “contributing” to the country’s hypersonic weapons program -- by applying the foreign direct product rule (see 2104150040).
The Bureau of Industry and Security completed interagency review of an interim final rule that could make changes to the Commerce Control List for certain cybersecurity items. The rule, received by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in September (see 2109200005) and completed Oct. 14, would build upon a proposed rule published by BIS in 2015 that was intended to gather feedback on new Wassenaar Arrangement controls on some cybersecurity items.
RANCHO MIRAGE, California -- The Commerce Department and CBP will soon deploy a new feature in the Automated Export System to automatically warn filers if they are exporting a controlled item without a license, a BIS official said. The agencies hope to launch the feature -- which should help exporters, freight forwarders and carriers better conduct due diligence -- in the next few months, said Richard Sylvestri, a senior export administration analyst in the Bureau of Industry and Security's Western Regional Office.
P. Lee Smith, former acting assistant secretary for export enforcement at the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, has joined Baker Donelson as of counsel and will lead the firm's Washington, D.C.-based International Trade and National Security practice, it announced.