Rep's Threat on Export Controls Puts Spotlight on China

International Trade attorney Antonia Tzinova was quoted in a Law360 article about House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul's threat to move the federal export controls system away from the U.S. Department of Commerce. This situation shines lights on the hostility toward China. McCaul's threats come after renewing certain oversights requests from 2020, to which the department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) had not responded. Ms. Tzinova pointed out that Congress renewed BIS' export control mandate when it reauthorized the Export Administration Regulations just five years ago, 24 years after the original legislation underpinning the dual-use export control system expired.

"It was very [heavily] deliberated at the time, and [Congress] found that Commerce is the best-placed to make these determinations of which technologies that are currently not controlled … should be added to our export controls," she said. "So I don't see this going away from Commerce."

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