On September 24, 2021, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry (“BIS”) published a “Notice of Request for Public Comments on Risks in the Semiconductor Supply Chain” (“Notice”). The Notice seeks responses from various parties in the semiconductor supply chain about current shortages and related issues. Comments in response to the Notice are due by November 8, 2021.
The Notice was issued in response to a 100-Day Supply Chain Review (“Review”) of semiconductors and advanced packaging as required under President Biden’s Executive Order 14017 entitled “America’s Supply Chains.” Our post addressing the 100-Day Review, entitled “Biden Administration Supply Chain Reports Deeper Dive #3: White House 100-Day Review of Semiconductor and Advanced Packaging Supply Chain Recommends Strengthening Export Controls,” may be accessed here.
The Review identified vulnerabilities within the supply chain and the adverse effect on various industry sectors. The Notice seeks responses from domestic and foreign semiconductor manufacturers, material and equipment suppliers, semiconductor intermediate and end users, and all interested parties with the goal of identifying shortages in the supply chain. By identifying data gaps, bottlenecks, and inconsistent demand signals, the Commerce Department and the White House aim to improve the flow of information to advance the semiconductor supply chain.
On September 29, 2021, the White House released “U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council Inaugural Joint Statement” following the Council’s meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. The Statement outlined the commitment to identify gaps, vulnerabilities and opportunities along the semiconductor supply chain in order to strengthen semiconductor R&D and manufacturing. The Statement further emphasized a commitment to cooperation, transparency and communication between the United States and the European Union.
Interested parties are invited to submit information pertinent to the Notice, including but not limited to written comments, data and analyses, to the BIS Office of Technology Evaluation on or before November 8, 2021. The comment process includes an option to submit business proprietary information confidentially. A complete list of information and data sought by BIS can be found within the Notice and are divided between inquiries for manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors and another list for users of semiconductor products. If you wish to submit a comment on the Notice or have any questions, please contact any member of our Outbound Trade Compliance team.
On October 14, 2021, BIS announced that on October 29 it will hold a “Virtual Forum for Risks in the Information Communication Technology Supply Chain” (the “Virtual Forum”). The Virtual Forum, which will begin at 9:00 a.m Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), will allow speakers to provide recommendations to strengthen the resiliency of critical supply chains supporting the US information and communications technology (“ICT”) industrial base, and to provide comments on the policy objectives listed in Executive Order 14017. BIS has indicated it is particularly interested in recommendations intended to strengthen the supply chains supporting critical component manufacturing, such as printed circuit boards and fiber optic cables, electronic manufacturing services and assembly, networking devices and radio base stations, operating system software development, and cloud computing services. BIS created a page for the Virtual Forum through which requests to speak must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. EDT on October 22, 2021, and through which requests to attend must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. EDT on October 27, 2021.
The authors acknowledge the assistance of Taylor Parker on this blog post.
