President Donald Trump’s trade war against China has so far focused on attacking imports. His new front: Weaponizing American exports.
The Trump administration is seeking to choke off Beijing’s access to key technologies by limiting the sale of vital U.S. components to China’s Huawei Technologies Co. The U.S. is considering putting at least five Chinese surveillance companies on the same blacklist.
Some U.S. businesses fear the export controls more than tariffs. Companies like General Electric, Google and Microsoft are worried it could bar them from competing in lucrative markets while reducing America’s capacity to innovate.
In a written submission to Commerce, Microsoft warned that the proposed restrictions risked isolating the U.S. from international research collaborations behind the development of many technologies, and that done wrongly, a new regime “could thwart U.S. interests.”
“Artificial intelligence is a very broad concept,” GE cautioned in its own submission. Defined too broadly export controls could sweep up things like medical imaging where algorithms are being used to scan for diseases and toys like talking teddy bears, it said.
Bill Reinsch, who oversaw the U.S. export-control regime in the Clinton administration, said striking the right balance to protect national security while not stifling innovation is a hard task.
“It’s always tricky to get export controls right. Too lax and critical technologies end up in the hands of our adversaries. Too strict and we limit our high tech companies’ ability to grow and further innovate, and we encourage others to develop their own capabilities in critical sectors,” he said.
Reference: Bloomberg
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-23/trump-wields-a-more-powerful-weapon-than-tariffs-for-trade-war?srnd=premium-asia
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