Inside U.S. Trade Quotes Kevin Wolf on New Export Control Process
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Inside U.S. Trade has quoted Akin Gump international trade partner Kevin Wolf in the article “Tech industry presses for time on new export control process.” The article reports on a decision by technology companies to seek additional time to review a new export control process before providing feedback on it to the Trump administration.
Since enactment of the Export Control Reform Act and the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), the White House has sought to widen the list of technologies subject to export controls. Exactly how that is done, however, and how the administration defines emerging and foundational technologies is key, the article notes.
“They’re treating the two separately,” said Wolf, a former Commerce Department official, with emerging technologies referring to non-mature technologies, such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence. Foundational technologies, meanwhile, are those technologies that are mature and already exist. He described them as “two separate parallel processes to implement the policy objective.”
The article reports that, while not mentioned directly by the administration, the export control process is aimed in part at China.
“Although unstated in the notice, as a policy driver, if you trace this back through the history of the legislative debate on FIRRMA, clearly the motive and concern is Chinese efforts to acquire technologies in these areas and use them in ways contrary to our national security interest," Wolf said.
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