Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week, in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Trump administration is still wrestling with how exactly to scope its replacement for the Biden-era AI diffusion rule, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has been ordered in recent months to avoid tough export controls on China as Washington tries to strike a trade deal with Beijing, the Financial Times reported July 28. The report comes after Trump administration officials said they planned to lift restrictions on Nvidia's H20 chip exports to China as part of an agreement that saw Beijing ease restrictions on rare earths (see 2507150013). The White House and BIS didn't respond to our requests for comment.
In separate letters to the Trump administration, more than 20 former national security officials along with five Senate Democrats urged the Commerce Department to reverse its decision to approve exports of Nvidia’s advanced AI chips to China.
The U.S. and the EU reached a trade deal this week that will include a 15% U.S. tariff on most EU exports and will eliminate duties on both sides for other items, including aircraft parts and certain semiconductor equipment, agricultural products and more. The EU also will buy advanced American AI chips along with more American energy as part of the bloc’s effort to phase out purchases from Russia, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
At least $1 billion worth of Nvidia advanced AI chips were smuggled into China about a month after the Trump administration placed new export controls on the company's less advanced chips, the Financial Times reported July 24. Multiple Chinese distributors in May began selling Nvidia's B200 chips to suppliers of data centers that serve Chinese AI groups, the report said, adding that those chips are more advanced than Nvidia's H20s, which the Trump administration restricted in April (see 2504160026). Contracts reviewed by the Financial Times for sales during that time period showed shipments "estimated to be more than" $1 billion.
The Trump administration is launching a new program to increase U.S. exports of AI technologies and services as part of an effort to spread the adoption of American AI systems around the world.
The U.S. should impose new export controls on the subsystems of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and double down on enforcement for exports of advanced AI chips, including by potentially mandating that chip exporters use location-tracking features, the White House said in its new AI action plan. While the plan calls for tighter controls against China and other “strategic adversaries,” it also said the U.S. should strike deals with other countries to export American AI systems around the world.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week, in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Senate Appropriations Committee’s newly released report on the FY 2026 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill (see 2507170053 and 2507100053) calls for the Bureau of Industry and Security to take several actions to inform lawmakers, including writing a report on international efforts to harmonize export controls on items that could aid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.