Approval of H20 Exports Was a 'Step Back,' Former Trump Official Says
H.R. McMaster, former national security adviser during the first Trump administration, said he disagrees with the government's plan to approve exports of Nvidia's advanced H20 chips to China (see 2508220003) and hopes the administration soon develops a more coherent economic security strategy.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
During an event last week hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, McMaster said the U.S. has been "taking a few steps forward, but also a couple steps back" when it comes to technology competition with China.
"I think the relaxation, for example, of some of the export controls associated with H20 chips -- I think that’s a step back." He said some officials in the Trump administration may be prioritizing trade over national security issues, adding that the U.S. needs to "recognize that we are in competition with a hostile, authoritarian power."
"I think there are some people who are still clinging to this idea that just free trade, in and of itself, is an unmitigated good," McMaster said. "I think that it fails to recognize the degree to which China has weaponized" this "economic model against us."
McMaster also bemoaned the fact that Trump has fired multiple high-ranking national security officials since taking office in January. "I mean, where's the [National Economic Council]? I wish we had more of an NEC and [National Security Council]. Somebody convinced President Trump, apparently, that his own staff was the deep state, so those guys got the hatchet."
He said this has led to an uncoordinated U.S. strategy, with the Cabinet agencies "all doing different things" instead of working together. "Where is the process that integrates these perspectives?"
"I hope that we'll see -- and I think we will -- we're bound to see a higher degree of coherence in the application of the whole range of economic tools," he said. "Tariffs, import and inbound and outbound investment screening, export controls. It all has to be holistic."