BIS Sends Semiconductor Final Rule to OMB

Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a final rule from the DOC’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) on “Implementation of Additional Export Controls: Certain Advanced Computing Items and Semiconductor Manufacturing Items; Supercomputer and Semiconductor End Use; Updates to the Controls and Corrections”. This rulemaking responds to comments received by BIS on an interim final rule on the topic published on October 13^th, 2022.

According to the entry for this rulemaking in the Spring 2023 Unified Agenda:

“In this rule, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is finalizing the changes to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) in response to an interim final rule published on October 13, 2022, that implemented necessary controls on advanced computing integrated circuits (ICs), computer commodities that contain such ICs, and certain semiconductor manufacturing items.  In addition, BIS expanded controls on transactions involving items for supercomputer and semiconductor manufacturing end uses, for example, the rule expanded the scope of foreign-produced items subject to license requirements for twenty-eight existing entities on the Entity List that are located in China. BIS also informed the public that specific activities of U.S. "persons" that ‘support’ the "development" or "production" of certain ICs in the PRC require a license.  Lastly, to minimize short term impact on the semiconductor supply chain from this rule, BIS established a Temporary General License to permit specific, limited manufacturing activities in China related to items destined for use outside China and is identifying a model certificate that may be used in compliance programs to assist, along with other measures, in conducting due diligence. BIS received forty-three comments in response to the interim final rule.  In this rule, BIS makes additional changes in response to the comments received on the interim final rule and additional changes identified by BIS that are needed in order to achieve the objectives of the October 13 rule.”

This rulemaking probably does not include any cybersecurity provisions that would engender specific coverage in this blog. I am including this procedural coverage because of the potential impact any regulation of the import/export of semiconductors could have on the control system community.