Recent weeks have brought news on multiple fronts regarding supply chain risks and actions in response thereto:

Commerce ICTS Regulations to Go Into Effect; Chinese ICTS Companies, Products, and Services in the Headlights

The Trump Administration rolled out regulations to implement prohibitions on the use or delivery of covered Chinese telecommunications and video surveillance products and services.  Additionally, its Department of Commerce had engaged in rulemaking to implement processes and procedures for identifying supply chain risks posed by Chinese Information and Communications Technology Sector (ICTS) companies, products, and services.  The Biden Administration has come to town and many have wondered what is going to happen to this rulemaking when it becomes effective in March 2021.  Law360 quotes the new Secretary of Commerce as saying “The Biden-Harris administration has been clear that the unrestricted use of untrusted ICTS poses a national security risk…Beijing has engaged in conduct that blunts our technological edge and threatens our alliances.”  For those wondering whether the Biden Administration will continue its tough stance on Chinese ICTS, China and ICTS remain a target of potential enforcement activities under the Biden Administration: “The administration is firmly committed to taking a whole-of-government approach to ensure that untrusted companies cannot misappropriate and misuse data and ensuring that U.S. technology does not support China’s or other actors’ malign activities.”  The Administration has backed up these words with actions, applying the Commerce rules to issue subpoenas to Chinese ICTS firms to further assess the risks they pose to the supply chain.  However, the Administration is also holding talks with China this week and one wonders whether and to what extent this action is intended to impact that discussion.

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