BIS announces export control and supply chain joint working group with South Korea

The US Bureau of Industry and Security (‘BIS’) has announced the creation, with the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Trade Investment and Enterprise (‘MOTIE’), of the U.S.-Korea Supply Chain and Commercial Dialogue Dual-use Export Controls Group, which, it says, is ‘Tasked with identifying specific actions that both parties will aim to consider in order to advance export controls cooperation, with a view to enhancing international security and simultaneously ensuring a level-playing field.’

BIS said that the working group ‘will see to fruition the working plan that U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Chang-Yang outlined earlier this year, executing on the following objectives:

• To enhance U.S.-Korean coordination and ensure that export controls are consistent with the promotion of bilateral trade and the stability of the global supply chain in the field of advanced manufacturing
• To promote convergent control approaches addressing new security challenges
• To ensure efficient stakeholder engagement and support in the development and implementation of effective export control approaches.’

The move, said BIS, ‘continues the momentum started by President Biden and President Yoon’s May 2022 announcement, where they reaffirmed the United States’ and South Korea’s bilateral commitment to enhancing cooperation on several fronts, including export control authorities related to critical technologies, a necessary tool in preventing adversaries from procuring the building blocks to undermine both the United States’ and the Republic of Korea’s national security.’