More 'Innovative' Approach Needed for Emerging Tech Controls, STRI Report Says

The Strategic Trade Research Institute released a winter-spring report in January on emerging technologies that examines how companies can mitigate trade risks, advocates for a new approach to export controls, and explores the challenges and compliance mechanisms for emerging technology controls from a European perspective. The report from the STRI, a non-profit trade research institute, also provides background on the U.S. effort to control emerging technologies, including the beginning of the export control reform movement in 2010 and the U.S.’s “critical technology approach,” which defines which technologies to target. Among several topics, the report argues more “innovative approaches” are needed to address the rapid rise of emerging technologies, such as an “omni-use” term instead of a “dual-use” term to address the lack of a “broad consensus” on the potential military and civilian uses of certain emerging technologies. The report also introduces a “model” to identify parameters to determine “technology controllability” as governments face the difficult task of controlling “intangible technology exports.”