Commerce Official Says Proposed Emerging Tech Controls Still Being Reviewed, First ETTAC Meeting Delayed

More than three weeks after a top Commerce official said the agency’s first set of proposed controls on emerging technologies would be released within the ”next few weeks,” (see 1910290062) the proposal is still under review. Commerce now hopes to release the proposed controls “in the next couple weeks,” Matt Borman, Commerce deputy undersecretary for export administration, said during a Nov. 20 Materials and Equipment Technical Advisory Committee meeting.

“We’ve got a set that we’re working on in internal review,” Borman said. “So we’re hoping to get those through interagency [review] and out for public comment in the next couple weeks -- I hope.”

Commerce officials have said for months the controls would be released soon, and companies and trade groups are growing impatient and concerned with the delay (see 1911070014). Borman said the controls that are under interagency review are narrow, adding that Commerce is intending to propose them for multilateral review, including at the Wassenaar Arrangement. The proposed controls will be “specific, technical slices,” Borman said. He also said Commerce’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking for foundational technologies is in its “final stages of internal review.”

Commerce will likely have to postpone the first meeting of the new Emerging Technology Technical Advisory Committee due to a delay in issuing interim security clearances to potential members, Borman added. In October, Borman said Commerce planned to hold the first meeting Dec. 4. “I think it’s going to have to be pushed back,” Borman said, adding that the meeting will now likely be held in “early 2020.”

The ETTAC has a “set of prospective members” who are waiting on security clearances, Borman said. Although Commerce has already chosen some potential members, Borman said the agency will continue to accept applications. “This is an open application process,” he said. “If you or someone you know is not in the initial batch, and you’d still like to be considered, you can put in your application.”

Borman expects the ETTAC to significantly overlap with areas of concern from Commerce’s other committees and encouraged industry participation from other committees and the public. “We hope to have a lot of collaboration between the existing TACs and the emerging technology TAC,” he said.