Kevin Wolf Quoted by POLITICO on Export Controls and Russia

March 19, 2022

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For its article “Biden’s war on the Russian economy is missing a key player,” POLITICO quoted Akin Gump international trade partner Kevin Wolf on the stalled Senate confirmation of the Biden-Harris administration’s nominee for Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security. The position, POLITICO notes, oversees implementation of U.S. export controls.

Wolf, who served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), said of the vacant position, “Never before have there been more complex issues involving export controls than exist today. By definition, there needs to be leadership leading this intellectually difficult exercise.”

He noted that BIS officials and two new assistant secretaries have done an extraordinary job in imposing new export controls on Russia after it attacked Ukraine, but that the unprecedented situation demands the agency be fully staffed.

Wolf said of a September 2021 U.S.-EU joint statement on dual-use export controls for purposes such as curbing overseas human rights abuses and responding to China’s civil-military fusion policies, that these ideas have all been discussed in recent years among U.S. policy-makers, but the statement was the first time a U.S. ally agreed to expanding export control use outside of traditional Cold War-era applications.

On the topic of the use of export controls to weaken Russia’s economy, Wolf said, “When you start getting into issues like technology leadership, or civil-military fusion, or human rights or supply chain security or strategic economic competition, those are all non-traditional uses for export controls for which there is not really authority outside the U.S. to control something for any of those other reasons.”

However, he noted, a new Undersecretary could help the Biden-Harris administration think on the future direction of export controls and work with European and other allies to coordinate joint actions.

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