A new report accompanying the Senate Appropriations Committee’s FY 2025 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Bill calls for the Bureau of Industry and Security to conduct several export control reviews, including one that identifies regulatory “gaps” that have allowed controlled U.S. technology, especially semiconductor technology, to flow to China without a license (see 2407260054).
Exports to China
U.S. intelligence agencies are warning American emerging technology startups about the risks of accepting certain foreign investments, saying “foreign threat actors” from China and elsewhere are using those investments as a guise to steal sensitive technology.
Stopping U.S. firms from participating in RISC-V, an open-source semiconductor architecture that policymakers fear China will use to evade export controls, would only hurt American innovation and competitiveness, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said this month.
Minsu Fang, a Chinese national, was indicted for allegedly conspiring to import what the U.S. government believes to be "the largest amount of fentanyl precursors found in the Southern District of Texas and one of the largest in the country," DOJ announced July 22.
The U.S. is trying to convince more of its allies to increase export controls on advanced semiconductors and chip making equipment destined to China, but some haven’t committed, in part because they’re worried about possible trade retaliation from Beijing, said Alan Estevez, undersecretary of the Bureau of Industry and Security.
Chinese and South Korean officials last week held their first meeting of a new export control dialogue forum in Beijing, where they “exchanged in-depth views on relevant export control issues,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a news release, according to an unofficial translation. The two sides also agreed to continue “close communication, create good conditions for the normal development of bilateral trade, and work together” to maintain the “smooth flow” of supply chains. The meeting was held about two weeks after the U.S. and South Korea discussed export controls as part of the second meeting of the U.S.-Korea Supply Chain and Commercial Dialogue Ministerial (see 2406280026).
The House Appropriations Committee has included several export control provisions in a new report accompanying its version of the FY 2025 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Bill.
The Biden administration is having “a lot” of conversations with China to try to convince the country to stop shipping certain dual-use goods to Russia, and some of those conversations appear to be working, said Jay Shambaugh, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for international affairs. But Shambaugh also said the U.S. wants Beijing to do more, and the administration is analyzing whether its current trade and financial restrictions are strong enough.
EU governments need to do more to stop China from exporting dual-use items to Russia, including by sanctioning more Chinese companies and imposing secondary sanctions on foreign banks and other entities that are helping to facilitate those transactions, three think tanks said in a recent report.
A former top trade negotiator in Mexico, Juan Carlos Baker Pineda, said he doesn't think the review of the USMCA will be about fine-tuning or technical changes to the trade pact.