Congress should establish a rebuttable presumption that certain technology exports sold to China will be used to violate human rights, said Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J. Malinowski, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he pushed to include that language in a previous House version of the Ensuring American Global Leadership and Engagement (EAGLE) Act but the wording “kept on getting stripped by the Senate” for “mysterious” reasons. “There is a very strong behind-the-scenes lobby against that from whatever elements of corporate America continue to profit from that trade,” Malinowski said in a Capitol hallway interview July 27, specifically pointing to facial recognition technology.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is “very busy” working to implement the semiconductor supply chain recommendations (see 2107140047) that arose from President Joe Biden’s February executive order (see 2102240068), including directives to pursue more collaboration with industry and a review of export controls and investment restrictions, a senior BIS official said. Sahar Hafeez, a senior adviser at BIS, said the agency will continue implementing those recommendations “in the weeks and months ahead.”
India introduced a new document for parties seeking revalidation of export authorization under the Special Chemicals, Organism, Material, Equipment and Technologies (SCOMET) export control, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade said July 27. The new form, dubbed ANF 20(d), will “facilitate the trade and industry” to file applications for revalidation of SCOMET export authorization.
The U.S. should sanction China in response to the recent Chinese-led cyberattacks against dozens of companies and entities in the U.S. and abroad (see 2107190022), four Republican senators said in a July 23 letter to President Joe Biden. The U.S. should impose sanctions similar to those announced against Russia in April, the senators said. Those sanctions authorized restrictions against people and companies operating in Russia’s defense and technology sectors for cyber criminal activity (see 2104150019). “I call on you to clarify your red lines and provide transparency regarding how your Administration will act to protect the U.S. from further cyberattacks,” said Sens. Roger Marshall of Kansas, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas. The White House didn’t comment.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control July 27 released more than 30 Ukraine-related web general licenses that have expired or are nearing expiration. The licenses include numerous iterations for General License No. 13, which authorized certain transactions with specific blocked entities related to Ukraine, and General License No. 15, which authorized certain transactions with GAZ Group and its subsidiaries. The most recent versions of GL 13 and 15 are scheduled to expire in January 2022 (see 2012230066).
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission revised its export controls over “reprocessing plant components” to align with recent changes made by the multilateral Nuclear Suppliers Group, the NRC said in a July 27 final rule. The rule specifically conforms the NRC’s export controls over its “Illustrative List of Reprocessing Plant Components” with changes recently made to the NSG’s guidelines for nuclear transfers. “The NRC has determined that these changes are consistent with current U.S. policy, and will pose no unreasonable risk to the public health and safety or to the common defense and security of the United States,” the agency said. The changes include revisions to the text for “Irradiated fuel element chopping machines” and “dissolvers.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security sent a proposed rule for interagency review that would impose export controls on certain additive manufacturing equipment used to “print energetic materials and related software and technology.” The rule, received by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs July 23, would revise the Commerce Control List to classify the equipment as an emerging technology as BIS seeks to propose the equipment for multilateral control at the Wassenaar Arrangement. BIS said Export Administration Regulations define energetic materials as “substances or mixtures that react chemically to release the energy required for their intended application,” and subclasses include explosives, pyrotechnics and propellants. The rule will request public comments so the scope of the proposed controls “will be effective and appropriate,” BIS said.
The U.S. should pursue more cooperation around multilateral export controls to address the supply chain risks within the semiconductor industry, Bureau of Industry and Security Senior Adviser Sahar Hafeez told the Information Technology Industry Council. Hafeez, speaking to ITI along with technology policy officials from the European Union and South Korea during a virtual panel last week, also stressed the importance of domestic chip investment.
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A Commerce Department technical advisory committee is considering proposing an exception for U.S. deemed export regulations to allow U.S. businesses to better compete with foreign companies. The potential exception, which hasn’t been finalized but was discussed during a July 27 meeting of the Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee, would authorize certain deemed exports to company employees, contractors or interns if the items are for “internal company use.” Committee members said the exception wouldn’t be eligible for deemed exports to foreign nationals from Country Groups E:1 and E:2, which includes Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria.