BIS interim final rule removing standards-related activities from EAR scope

Mechanism

The IFR rewrites 15 CFR §734.10 to define a class of activity — "standards-related activity" — and declare that "releases" of EAR-controlled "technology" or "software" made during such activity are not subject to the EAR, irrespective of the nationality or Entity List status of other participants. This is an activity-based exclusion rather than a licence exception: the exported items fall outside EAR jurisdiction entirely when the criteria are met, so no recordkeeping, no licence application, and no end-use/end-user restrictions attach.

The change consolidates three earlier band-aids that had layered up since 2019: 1. May 2019 Temporary General License — narrow authorisation to keep working with Huawei on 5G standards after Huawei's Entity List designation. 2. June 2020 IFR — release of certain low-level technology/software to Huawei and affiliates in standards development. 3. September 2022 IFR — extended (2) to all Entity List parties.

Industry feedback (ANSI, IEEE, US Council for International Business) had argued the 2022 framework remained too narrow because it relied on Entity-List-specific authorisations and required ongoing US Government-to-US Government coordination whenever a new firm was added. The 2024 IFR removes that conditionality by recasting the carve-out around the activity (development, adoption, application of standards through ISO/IEC/IEEE/3GPP/ITU and similar bodies) instead of the parties involved.

Downstream implications

• Huawei 5G/6G standards participation — US engineers can now contribute technology

releases to 3GPP working groups alongside Huawei without separate authorisation. Removes a compliance friction that had pushed some US firms to under-engage.

• AI standards (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42, IEEE P3119) — Same dynamic; US AI-firm

participation in international AI governance standards no longer needs an EL-by-EL analysis.

• Semiconductor standards (SEMI, JEDEC) — Indirect benefit; SMIC and other

Entity-Listed Chinese chip firms participate in these bodies.

• Compliance cost reduction — Companies no longer need to operate parallel

"Entity-List-clean" technical channels for standards-related comms.

• Policy signal — The Biden administration framed continued US leadership in

international standards as a strategic priority; this rule operationalises that framing within the existing export-control architecture.

Relationship to follow-on actions

A technical-corrections rule (FR Doc. 2024-16379, filed in this register as 2024-07-25-us-bis-ear-standards-related-corrections) was published one week later to fix inadvertent edits this rule made to unrelated Entity List text in 15 CFR Part 744. The corrections rule does not change substantive standards-related-activity policy.

Open questions

• Whether a future administration narrows the activity-based exclusion to exclude

particular Entity-Listed firms (e.g., reverting to an EL-by-EL authorisation model for Huawei specifically).

• Whether other jurisdictions (EU dual-use, UK strategic export controls, Japan

METI) adopt parallel activity-based exclusions or maintain party-based licensing.

• Practical scope of "standards-related activity" — the definition includes

development, adoption, and "application" of standards; the application prong's outer boundary is not yet tested.