The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on Dec. 11 began reviewing a final Bureau of Industry and Security rule that will implement more export controls agreed to at the 2019 Wassenaar Arrangement plenary. BIS published the first set of controls from the plenary in October (see 2010020042) but has since experienced rulemaking delays (see 2012080046).
Doug Hassebrock, the Bureau of Industry and Security's top enforcement official responsible for national security issues, retired last month. Hassebrock served as the deputy assistant secretary for export enforcement and left in early November, BIS official Hillary Hess said during a Dec. 8 Commerce Department technical advisory committee meeting. Kevin Kurland, director of BIS’s Office of Export Analysis, is acting in Hassebrock’s role, Hess said. A BIS spokesperson didn’t comment.
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The Commerce Department will not publish its long-awaited proposed regulations on routed export transactions (see 2007150044) this year and is experiencing delays on other rules, including another set of export controls from the 2019 Wassenaar Arrangement, a Commerce official said. Hillary Hess, the Bureau of Industry and Security’s regulatory policy director, cited a combination of internal BIS delays and a backlog at the Federal Register for the slowdown.
China reportedly has developed a supercomputer that gives it an advantage in quantum computing, an emerging technology category that the U.S. has sought to prevent China from dominating. The computer can perform certain computations 100 trillion times faster than the world’s fastest existing supercomputer, giving China a “quantum computational advantage,” or “quantum supremacy,” Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, reported Dec. 4. Chinese researchers also said the computer can perform certain processes 10 billion times faster than the quantum computer developed by Google. The Bureau of Industry and Security is considering export controls on certain technology related to quantum computers, with those restrictions in their final rule stage as of July (see 2007140027). A BIS spokesperson said the agency continues to “evaluate and identify technologies that warrant control.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security corrected its September revision of the Export Administration Regulations, which implemented export control changes made by the 2018 Wassenaar Arrangement plenary (see 2009100027). The corrections, issued in a notice released Dec. 3, address errors that were “unintentionally introduced” in Export Control Classification Numbers 3A001, 3A002, 3A991, 5A002, 7A005 and 9E003, BIS said. It said the corrections do not change BIS policy or affect licensing requirements.
The Bureau of Industry and Security should apply the “minimal” necessary level of export controls on foundational technologies to prevent impacts on U.S. academic research, universities said in comments to the agency. BIS also should reexamine which technologies it defines as “emerging” because some are already commercially widespread, a British aerospace company said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking comments on how the Chemical Weapons Convention affected certain U.S. “commercial activities” this year, the agency said in a notice released Nov. 30. BIS plans to use the comments as it prepares its annual certification to Congress on whether CWC regulations on Schedule 1 chemicals harm “legitimate commercial activities and interests of chemical, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical firms.” Comments are due Dec. 31.
The Bureau of Industry and Security expects to roll out a more multilateral approach to export controls under the Joe Biden administration but does not expect any major changes to its China policies or Entity List decisions, a senior Commerce Department official said. The official pointed to the strong bipartisan support among lawmakers for Chinese sanctions and export controls, which likely will continue under a new administration. “I don't see that going away. I think the Hill is engaged. I think at least from what President-elect Biden has announced with his Cabinet, these are folks who are familiar with the national security issues,” the official, who declined to be named in order to speak candidly about BIS, said in an interview last week. “So I don't expect a lot of substantive change.”
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