The Commerce Department plans to release its first set of proposed controls on emerging technologies in six areas, including the semiconductor and artificial intelligence sectors, a top Commerce official said. The six proposed rules (see 1912130055), which may not be released until early next year, include restrictions on items in the fields of quantum technology, semiconductor design, chemicals, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and possibly 3D printing, said Matt Borman, Commerce’s deputy assistant secretary for export administration. The controls stem from an advance notice of proposed rulemaking published more than a year ago.
Douglas Hassebrok was appointed by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to be deputy assistant secretary for export enforcement in the Bureau of Industry and Security and acting assistant secretary for export enforcement, according to Jim Bartlett of Full Circle Compliance. Hassebrok was previously BIS director of the Office of Export Enforcement. John Sonderman was named to Hassebrok's previous role at BIS in an acting capacity, Bartlett said, citing agency sources. BIS didn't comment.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., filed cloture Dec. 12 on the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. S. 1790 includes language targeting Huawei and ZTE. McConnell’s cloture motion sets up a likely Senate vote this week. The House approved the measure Wednesday on a 377-48 vote. The House and Senate Armed Services committees released the conference text earlier in the week after months of work to blend the Senate- and House-passed (HR. 2500) measures. The conference version includes a modified text of House-side anti-Huawei language originally sought by Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., that would modify conditions for the Commerce Department to lift the Bureau of Industry and Security’s addition of Huawei to its entity list. It would require Huawei to prove it “sufficiently resolved or settled” supply chain security issues that led to its inclusion on the BIS entity list. The Commerce Department has since approved Huawei-related export licenses for U.S. companies to have their products included in the Chinese telecom equipment maker's products. The conference NDAA also includes Gallagher’s proposal to direct the president to report to Congress on ZTE's compliance with a 2018 agreement that lifted Commerce's ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to ZTE.
BOSTON -- The Commerce Department is preparing six initial proposed rules to control exports of emerging technologies and hopes to release at least one before the end of the year, said Karen Nies-Vogel, the director of the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Office of Exporter Services, speaking during a Dec. 13 event hosted by the Massachusetts Export Center. A Commerce official said during a technical advisory committee meeting earlier this month that the agency is working on at least three rules (see 1912100019). While Commerce officials have said the technologies would be published this year (see 1910290062), delays have caused the publication to be pushed back.
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking comments on an information collection related to requests for participation in foreign boycotts against countries friendly to the U.S., according to a notice. BIS analyzes the information to “note changing trends” and decide on actions to take to prevent participation in “foreign restrictive trade practices and boycotts.” Comments are due Feb. 10, 2020.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Dec. 2-6 in case you missed them.
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security's upcoming set of proposed rules on emerging technologies may not be published until early next year, another sign of the delay that has plagued the rules since Commerce first announced them more than a year ago. Commerce has three emerging technology rule proposals in “various stages of clearance,” Hillary Hess, director of the BIS Regulatory Policy Division, said during a Dec. 10 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. The agency hopes to publish one proposal before the end of the year, Hess said, but urged committee members to take any prediction with “at least a handful of salt.”
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking comments on procedures under which parties can request to be removed from Commerce’s Entity List and Unverified List, according to a Dec. 10 notice in the Federal Register. The information collection also includes procedures for requesting a “modification” to an entry on either list, BIS said. Comments are due Feb. 10, 2020.
The Commerce Department is seeking comments on proposed revisions relating to the Automated Export System, the Census Bureau said in a notice. The revisions include provisions for the “early release of preliminary steel mill import statistics” and plans by both Census and the Bureau of Industry and Security to draft a notice of proposed rulemaking to clarify the responsibilities of parties in routed and standard export transactions (see 1907100053). Census said it is “working with BIS to receive concurrence in order to publish the NPRM." Census also said the two agencies aim to publish the NPRMs “around the same time” to “allow the trade community an opportunity to review the proposed requirements as they relate to both filing and licensing responsibilities.” Census said its draft rule “has received concurrence” from the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Comments are due by Feb. 7, 2020.
An Iranian businessman was sentenced to 46 months in prison for illegally exporting carbon fiber from the U.S. to Iran, the Justice Department said Nov. 14. Behzad Pourghannad worked with two others between 2008 and 2013 to export the carbon fiber to Iran from third countries using falsified documents and front companies, the agency said.