US Creating New Export Controls for ‘Emerging Technologies’

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

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> From: FYI <fyi () aip-info org>
> Date: November 20, 2018 at 6:41:02 AM GMT+9
> To: farber () central cis upenn edu
> Subject: US Creating New Export Controls for ‘Emerging Technologies’
> Reply-To: FYI <re-1ZJN-5ZD2O-E29DH7-C0JXR () aip-info org>
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> FYI Bulletin covers federal science policy developments. If this email was forwarded to you, sign up for FYI updates 
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> Number 125: November 19, 2018
> US Creating New Export Controls for ‘Emerging Technologies’
> The Commerce Department has begun a process to establish new export controls for “emerging technologies,” as required 
> by this year’s National Defense Authorization Act. Quantum information technology is one of 14 technology categories 
> of interest to the department.
>
> A wafer from a quantum computer built by the company D-Wave. (Image credit - Steve Jurvetson / CC BY 2.0)
>   
> Today, the Commerce Department issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) that seeks public input on how 
> it should identify “emerging technologies” that are critical to U.S. national security.
>   
> The action responds to a provision in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) directing the president 
> to create an interagency process for establishing export controls on “emerging and foundational technologies.” The 
> department plans to issue a separate ANPRM for foundational technologies.
>   
> The notice identifies 14 technology categories that the Commerce Department regards as pertinent. The list includes a 
> range of advanced computing, manufacturing, and sensing technologies. One category is dedicated to quantum 
> information technology and references quantum computing, encryption, and sensing as examples of emerging 
> technologies. The notice states,
>   
> “These categories are a representative list of the technology categories from which Commerce, through an interagency 
> process, seeks to determine whether there are specific emerging technologies that are important to the national 
> security of the United States for which effective controls can be implemented that avoid negatively impacting U.S. 
> leadership in the science, technology, engineering, and manufacturing sectors.”
>   
> The Commerce Department is also seeking input on how to define what counts as an emerging technology, how to identify 
> those that are important to national security, and what other general technology categories should be considered 
> beyond the 14 listed. It asks for comment on the status of these technologies’ development in U.S. and abroad, as 
> well as the impact export controls would have on U.S. technological leadership.
>   
> The ANPRM further notes the department does not intend to extend controls over areas currently not subject to Export 
> Administration Regulations (EAR), citing “fundamental research” as an example. The EAR covers dual-use technologies 
> that can have both commercial and military applications, while export controls for military items are governed by a 
> separate set of regulations that the State Department administers.
>   
> Responses to the notice are due by Dec. 19.
>   
> New controls complement foreign investment overhaul
>   
> The effort to tighten controls on emerging technologies was led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Ed Royce 
> (R-CA) and Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-NY), who co-sponsored the “Export Control Reform Act.” Congress incorporated 
> a modified version of the bill in the NDAA, which President Trump signed into law in August.
>   
> The provision on emerging and foundational technologies is meant to complement a separate section of the NDAA that 
> overhauls foreign investment review mechanisms. In particular, the law expands the purview of the Committee on 
> Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an interagency body that recommends whether the president should 
> block certain transactions on national security grounds.
>   
> “The export control reforms we’ve achieved will build a modern, adaptable system that will work in tandem with a 
> stronger CFIUS process to maintain the U.S. edge in emerging fields like robotics and artificial intelligence,” said 
> Royce in a statement on the final legislation.
>   
> The Treasury Department has begun to implement the CFIUS changes, issuing a set of pilot regulations that went into 
> effect on Nov. 10. The regulations apply to 27 types of companies defined in the North American Industry 
> Classification System, covering areas such as nanotechnology R&D, biotechnology R&D, and optical equipment 
> manufacturing.
>   
> These reforms are driven by concerns that certain countries are taking advantage of weaknesses in current legal 
> frameworks to systematically obtain strategically important technologies. In particular, their proponents have made 
> clear that curbing China's ability to acquire cutting-edge technologies was one of their primary goals.
>   
> In a roundtable discussion of the CFIUS overhaul at the White House this summer, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn 
> (R-TX) remarked, “I believe that China represents the foremost national security and economic challenge to our 
> country of any other country in the world.”
>
> Contact the Author
>
> Mitch Ambrose
> American Institute of Physics
> mambrose () aip org
> (301) 209-3095
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