Global Trade & Foreign Policy Insights

Over are the days of carefree selling to and offshoring supply chains through China for leading-edge semiconductors and the technologies and equipment used to produce them. On October 7, 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (“Commerce”) Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced surgically precise and novel export controls targeting China’s[1] semiconductor and advanced computing industries. According to the BIS Press Release, the new controls will restrict China’s ability “to produce advanced military systems including weapons of mass destruction; improve the speed and accuracy of its military decision making, planning, and logistics, as well as of its autonomous military systems; and commit human rights abuses.”

On January 14, 2020 the Trump administration issued an interim rule identifying several countries and one individual as “foreign adversaries” under E.O. 13873, “Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services (ICTS) Supply Chain.”