Companies subject to U.S. investment screening are hoping the Trump administration takes a more predictable approach to reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., including by focusing on purely national security concerns, industry officials said this week.
The U.S. this week said it won’t be prosecuting a NASA contractor for export control violations because the organization quickly self-reported the breaches and demonstrated “exceptional and proactive” cooperation with DOJ’s National Security Division. The announcement came after one of the contractor’s employees pleaded guilty to illegally exporting flight control software to a Chinese company on the Entity List and embezzling at least $161,000 in software license sales from those exports.
Copa Holdings, the parent company of Latin American airlines Copa Airlines and Wingo, recently disclosed to the U.S. government that it may have violated U.S. sanctions against Cuba.
The Trump administration’s plans to reduce export control cooperation with allies, particularly the EU, could lead to more differences between the two jurisdictions' export systems, especially for controls targeted toward China, lawyers said this week.
James Rockas is no longer with the Bureau of Industry and Security after being appointed by the Trump administration to the position of deputy undersecretary in January, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Rockas left BIS last week and moved to the State Department, a Commerce Department spokesperson confirmed. He was replaced by Joe Bartlett, the BIS legislative affairs director.
Japanese lawmakers this week urged the Trump administration to continue engaging with allies on economic security issues and to not close off America from Japanese investment, saying Japanese companies will help grow American exports and reduce the U.S. trade deficit.
A new executive order aimed at reducing regulatory restrictions around weapons sales could speed up exports to allies and remove other trade barriers, law firms said, although key questions remain about how U.S. agencies will implement it.
The Bureau of Industry and Security's recent rules that expanded foreign direct product rule restrictions over chip equipment (see 2412020016) and set new foundry due diligence rules (see 2501150040) are already hurting U.S. companies, the U.S.-China Business Council said, including by incentivizing foreign firms to design U.S.-origin goods out of their chip supply chains.
The first few weeks of Undersecretary Jeffrey Kessler’s tenure at the Bureau of Industry and Security have been defined by industry uncertainty and skepticism toward career government and business officials, industry members and BIS staff said.
The U.S. is likely to soon try to place export controls around open-source technologies, including technologies related to semiconductors and artificial intleligence, a geopolitical risk management consultant said.