A new Bureau of Industry and Security rule that will place new, worldwide export controls on advanced computing chips and certain closed artificial intelligence model weights was widely panned by the American semiconductor and technology industry this week, even as U.S. officials said the restrictions are necessary to keep American companies ahead of their Chinese competitors.
The State Department’s recently published fall 2024 regulatory agenda previews a range of export control rules the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is hoping to issue this year, including one that would finalize an updated definition for defense services and others that would make various changes to the U.S. Munitions List.
The Bureau of Industry and Security on Dec. 31 suspended the export privileges of four people after they were convicted of export-related offenses, including illegal shipments involving guns, ammunition and Iranian oil. The suspensions took effect from the date of their convictions.
Space industry associations and companies largely welcomed a recent State Department proposal to modernize U.S. space-related export controls, although they asked for several clarifications, fewer export control guardrails and an extended timeline to allow space firms to update their compliance programs.
The Commerce Department’s fall 2024 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security features a host of new rules that could soon update U.S. export controls, including restrictions on aircraft engines, biological equipment and reporting requirements for certain weapons sales, AI chips.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is placing new export controls on certain toxins, chemicals and other items that can be used to make bioweapons as part of a final rule to align its restrictions with allies'.
The Census Bureau added two new license codes and revised an existing license code in the Automated Export System this week to reflect the Bureau of Industry and Security's latest export controls on semiconductor manufacturing equipment and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) (see 2412020016).
The State Department is expecting to see a large uptick by the end of the year in the number of authorized users under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations' new AUKUS exemption, a senior agency official said.
A new set of U.S. export controls announced this week target a range of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, chip software tools, high-bandwidth memory and more, including by introducing new license obligations on certain foreign-made tools that the Bureau of Industry and Security said can be used by China to make advanced chips for its military. BIS also added more than 100 entities to the Entity List, most based in China, for aiding Beijing's military technology goals.
The Census Bureau emailed tips on how to address the most frequent messages generated this month in the Automated Export System.