Export Controls

Comments made this week by President Trump highlight a chaotic export control regime that lacks a clear end goal and creates costly uncertainty for U.S. companies, analysts said on Tuesday. “The United States cannot, & will not, become such a difficult place to deal with in terms of foreign countries buying our product, including for the always used National Security excuse, that our companies will be forced to leave in order to remain competitive,” Trump said at the outset of...

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is requesting an 8 percent increase in funding -- just over $10 million -- so it can implement the Export Control Reform Act and identify “foundational” and “emerging” technologies, prioritize strategies to combat China’s “Made in China 2025” initiative and its civil-military fusion methods, and better detect export control violations. The funding boost is part of the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2021 budget request for the Commerce Department. It is proposing to...

A defense policy think tank is recommending a slew of trade actions to counter China’s national security threat, calling on the government to expand the use of export controls, strike deals in the Asia-Pacific region and ban Chinese companies from doing business in the U.S. if they have engaged in forced technology transfers. The report , prepared by the Center for a New American Security and mandated by the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, paints a bleak picture of the...

The much-anticipated meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last weekend resulted in an agreement to resume negotiations, a raft of questions about what comes next, and little substance, according to China analysts. U.S. tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods remain in place at 25 percent, as do China’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products. The U.S. negotiating team remains intent on getting an “enforceable deal,” and Chinese officials continue to say that any agreement must be...

Industry sources expect the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security to issue an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on “foundational technologies” within the next two weeks, a move they hope will provide some clarity on how the agency will craft new export controls. The notice is the next expected step in the implementation of the 2018 Export Control Reform Act. BIS last November issued an ANPRM for new export controls on “emerging” technologies. The notice is expected as soon...

FedEx is suing the Commerce Department over the implementation of the Export Control Reform Act, claiming that a lack of a safe harbor for common carriers in the U.S. Export Administration Regulations violates the company’s Fifth Amendment rights. Specifically, FedEx is claiming that its due process rights under the Fifth Amendment are being violated because Commerce does not have to prove common carriers are aware when they are violating U.S. export controls. Commerce also exceeded its authority under the law...

China claimed this week the Trump administration’s ban on U.S. companies doing business with Shenzhen-based electronics giant Huawei was an abuse of the WTO’s national security exception. The Commerce Department announced earlier this month that Huawei would be added to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s entities list after the agency concluded the company was “engaged in activities that are contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interest,” including “by providing prohibited financial services to Iran, and obstruction of...

The AFL-CIO has thrown its weight behind the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act and advised against changes to it. “The Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA) is a reasoned approach that balances the desire to maintain an open investment climate and our security interests,” AFL-CIO director of government affairs William Samuel wrote in an April 23 letter to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and ranking member Maxine Waters (D-CA). “Efforts to diminish the scope of...

The Treasury Department has signaled to key lawmakers and stakeholders that it is willing to enact elements of a bill to overhaul the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States through an executive order as part of the Trump administration’s response to China’s intellectual property and tech transfer practices, sources familiar with the internal deliberations say. The Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, which was introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC) last November, has...