The Bureau of Industry and Security on Oct. 18 placed its two new China chip export control rules on public inspection for publication in the Federal Register, which set the effective dates for both rules (see 2310170055).
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls sent a final rule for interagency review that could make certain export control changes to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. The rule is expected to finalize an April interim final rule that removed export controls from certain high-energy storage capacitors (see 2304260017).
The Bureau of Industry and Security last week completed a round of interagency review for an interim final rule that could update U.S. export controls on semiconductor manufacturing items. The rule underwent some changes during interagency review, which began Oct. 4 and was completed Oct. 13 (see 2310050015). The rule is distinct from the upcoming BIS rule that will finalize its Oct. 7, 2022, chip controls related to China (see 2310110030).
A spokesperson for South Korean semiconductor company SK Hynix said the company welcomed the recent U.S. decision to allow the firm to continue supplying its China factories with certain chipmaking tools (see 2310100051). In an Oct. 10 email, the spokesperson confirmed that SK Hynix received a “waiver with regard to the export control regulations” and said the company “greatly appreciate[d]” the South Korean and U.S. governments “for working closely with the companies through close communication and consultation until the decision is reached.”
South Korean semiconductor companies Samsung and SK Hynix received assurances from the Commerce Department that they will continue to be allowed to supply certain chipmaking tools to their China-based factories, continuing authorizations they had received as part of Commerce’s Oct. 7 China-related chip export controls rule, Reuters reported Oct. 9.
The State Department on Oct. 6 withdrew from interagency review a final rule that could have loosened export restrictions on certain controlled defense shipments and services for Ethiopia. The rule was initially sent for interagency review Aug. 17 and could remove Ethiopia from the International Traffic in Arms Regulations’ list of proscribed countries (see 2308210008).
U.S. sanctions and export controls have so far “not been sufficient to deter” China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., China analysts James Mulvenon and Joseph McReynolds said in a report released this month on Mulvenon’s website. The report said Applied Materials, Lam Research, Tokyo Electron, KLA and other chip companies are “effectively selling a wide range of relevant tools” used for 28 nanometer use to China, but SMIC likely is using them for 7 nm production.
Huawei’s 7 nanometer chip smartphone breakthrough earlier this year (see 2309120005, 2309150020 and 2309190052) signals that although China hasn’t yet reached the “global state of the art for semiconductor manufacturing,” the “gap between the peak technological level of China and that of the rest of the world has shrunk” despite U.S. export controls, said Gregory Allen of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The Bureau of Industry and Security sent an interim final rule for interagency review this week that could update U.S. export controls on certain semiconductor manufacturing items and make modifications to the Entity List. The rule was sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Oct. 4. A BIS spokesperson declined to comment about what the rule will entail.
The Bureau of Industry and Security completed a round of interagency review for a final rule that would implement export control changes and updates agreed to during the 2022 Wassenaar Arrangement cycle. The rule was sent for review July 18 (see 2307190015), with the review completed Sept. 29.