U.S. allies, including in Europe, may back away from their plans to de-risk from China if they continue to see the Trump administration use export controls as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations with China, a panelist said during an event this week hosted by the Center for a New American Security. Others said they’re skeptical about the sustainability of the trade deals announced by the U.S. last week, especially those that commit other countries to large purchases of American goods.
The U.K. this week revised its Russia-related sanctions evasion guidance to update its list of countries and items that pose high risk of sanctions circumvention.
The Trump administration plans to maintain strict China-related export controls on the most advanced semiconductors and chip manufacturing equipment, a senior White House official said last week, adding that the U.S. also doesn’t plan to automatically greenlight all H20 chip exports to China.
Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., a member of the committee, urged the Trump administration July 31 to reinstate provisions of the recently rescinded AI diffusion export control rule that are designed to discourage U.S. companies from offshoring critical AI infrastructure and ensure that the technology that is exported is not misused.
China's Cyberspace Administration is probing U.S. semiconductor firm Nvidia after raising concerns that the company's chips may be equipped with features to track the location or potentially shut down H20 chips sold in China, the agency said July 31, according to an unofficial translation.
The Trump administration appears to be avoiding new China-related controls on sensitive semiconductor manufacturing equipment because it fears those restrictions could impede a trade deal, a technology policy researcher said this week. Other researchers said the administration isn’t using its chip bargaining power correctly, adding that the U.S. should be getting more for the deals it has made so far with Gulf nations and potentially others in the future.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., asked the Trump administration July 30 to provide more information about its decision to allow Nvidia to sell H20 AI chips to China, including what “guardrails” it has put in place to ensure that the exports don’t help modernize the Chinese military.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters in Stockholm, Sweden, that the Chinese delegation spoke too early when they said the two sides agreed to another 90 days at current tariff levels, because the president is the one to decide. However, in a later interview with CNBC, Bessent said the meetings had been "highly satisfactory."
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California-based electronic design automation firm Cadence will pay more than $140 million in combined civil fines, criminal penalties and forfeitures after the U.S. said it violated export controls against China. The company pleaded guilty to illegally exporting EDA hardware, software and semiconductor design intellectual property technology to Chinese entities, including a university and company on the Entity List.