The departments of Commerce and Defense are establishing a new forum to better study potential controls for emerging technologies, Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez said, speaking during a July 19 House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. He said he has asked DOD to help him stand up a “critical technologies review board” to coordinate over a range of evolving technologies, including semiconductors, biotechnology and quantum computing. “This board will help BIS to understand the technologies DOD is investing in for military use,” he said, “and to help us impose appropriate controls for those technologies.” BIS recently announced it would stop categorizing technologies as either emerging or foundational before a control is imposed, which it hopes will help the interagency process move faster (see 2206270007).
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls this week published two open general licenses to authorize reexports and retransfers of certain defense items and services to Australia, Canada and the U.K. The two authorizations, which are the first open general licenses issued by DDTC, will be valid starting Aug. 1 through July 31, 2023, as part of a new pilot program.
The Bureau of Industry and Security should harmonize the Entity List with other lists across various agencies to better capture foreign companies that should be subject to strict trade restrictions, lawmakers told BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez this week. Others said BIS has failed to blacklist Chinese military companies that deserve placement on the Entity List, allowing the Chinese government to continue to buy sensitive American technologies.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. is investigating Swiss renewable energy company Viston United Swiss' proposed acquisition of California-based Petroteq Energy, an oil production and technology company. The CFIUS investigation, disclosed by Petroteq this month, began after CFIUS completed a 45-day review period earlier this year (see 2206130025). CFIUS told Petroteq it plans to complete its investigation by Aug. 22. Viston plans to extend its offer to purchase Petroteq until after Aug. 22.
CBP has completed work on its upcoming mandated electronic export manifest for ocean, air and rail (see 2205060015), and is inching closer to issuing a public rulemaking, said Thomas Overacker, CBP’s executive director of cargo and conveyance security, speaking July 18 during CBP’s Trade Facilitation and Cargo Security Summit. He said the agency also is “finalizing internal work” on mandated EEM for truck. “So watch for that,” he said. “In the coming year, we'll have more to announce.”
The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports again postponed by a week a new surcharge meant to incentivize the movement of dwelling containers (see 2110280031), the two ports announced July 15. The ports had planned to begin imposing the fee in November 2021 but have postponed it each week since. The latest extension delays the effective date until July 22.
The Biden administration should reverse a 2020 rule that transferred export controls over certain defense items from the State Department to the Commerce Department (see 2001170030), said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. She said the transfer has allowed the U.S. to approve more weapons sales overseas, contributing to violent crime and corruption.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is conducting a review of the types of semiconductors and chipmaking equipment that can be exported to China to determine whether it needs to tighten those restrictions, BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez said, speaking during a Senate Banking Committee hearing last week. He said the agency is considering tightening the “cut-off point” of semiconductors that are subject to strict export licensing requirements.
Ongoing labor negotiations between West Coast ports and their dockworkers’ union are unlikely to cause major disruptions, said David Bennett, chief commercial officer of Farrow, a customs broker and logistics provider. But that doesn’t mean shippers should expect the negotiations to wrap up anytime soon. “I don't think we'll have a contract before September, to be honest with you,” Bennett said during a July 14 webinar hosted by the Journal of Commerce.
A potential provision in the bipartisan China package (see 2207120049) that would create an outbound investment screening mechanism received more opposition (see 2206280051 and 2201140038) this week, including from lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee and former U.S. investment screening officials. While opponents of the provision say some form of outbound screening may eventually be necessary to further restrict sensitive technology transfers to China, they also said the current wording is too broad and leaves too many questions unanswered.