[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 72 (Wednesday, April 16, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15950-15951]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-06591]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Bureau of Industry and Security
[Docket No. 250414-0066]
XRIN 0694-XC121
Notice of Request for Public Comments on Section 232 National
Security Investigation of Imports of Semiconductors and Semiconductor
Manufacturing Equipment
AGENCY: Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Strategic Industries
and Economic Security, U.S. Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of request for public comments.
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SUMMARY: The Secretary of Commerce initiated an investigation to
determine the effects on the national security of imports of
semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment (SME), and
their derivative products. This investigation has been initiated under
section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended. Interested
parties are invited to submit written comments, data, analyses, or
other information pertinent to the investigation to the Department of
Commerce's (Department) Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), Office
of Strategic Industries and Economic Security. This notice identifies
issues on which the Department is especially interested in obtaining
the public's views.
DATES: Comments may be submitted at any time but must be received by
May 7, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Comments on this notice may be submitted to the Federal
rulemaking portal at: www.regulations.gov. The regulations.gov ID for
this notice is BIS-2025-0021 Please refer to XRIN 0694-XC121 in all
comments.
All filers using the portal should use the name of the person or
entity submitting the comments as the name of their files, in
accordance with the instructions below. Anyone submitting business
confidential information should clearly identify the business
confidential portion at the time of submission, file a statement
justifying nondisclosure and referring to the specific legal authority
claimed, and provide a non-confidential version of the submission.
For comments submitted electronically containing business
confidential information, the file name of the business confidential
version should begin with the characters ``BC.'' Any page containing
business confidential information must be clearly marked ``BUSINESS
CONFIDENTIAL'' on the top of that page. The corresponding non-
confidential version of those comments must be clearly marked
``PUBLIC.'' The file name of the non-confidential version should begin
with the character ``P.'' Any submissions with file names that do not
begin with either a ``BC'' or a ``P'' will be assumed to be public and
will be made publicly available at: https://www.regulations.gov.
Commenters submitting business confidential information are encouraged
to scan a hard copy of the non-confidential
[[Page 15951]]
version to create an image of the file, rather than submitting a
digital copy with redactions applied, to avoid inadvertent redaction
errors which could enable the public to read business confidential
information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephen Astle, Director, Defense
Industrial Base Division, Office of Strategic Industries and Economic
Security, Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Commerce,
(202) 482-2533, [email protected]. For more information
about the section 232 program, including the regulations and the text
of previous investigations, see www.bis.doc.gov/232.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
On April 1, 2025, the Secretary of Commerce initiated an
investigation under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act (19 U.S.C.
1862) to determine the effects on national security of imports of
semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and their
derivative products. This includes, among other things, semiconductor
substrates and bare wafers, legacy chips, leading-edge chips,
microelectronics, and SME components. Derivative products include
downstream products that contain semiconductors, such as those that
make up the electronics supply chain.
Request for Public Comments
This investigation is being undertaken in accordance with part 705
of the National Security Industrial Base Regulations (15 CFR parts 700
through 709) (``NSIBR''). Interested parties are invited to submit
written comments, data, analyses, or information pertinent to this
investigation to BIS's Office of Strategic Industries and Economic
Security no later than May 7, 2025. The Department is particularly
interested in comments and information directed at the criteria listed
in Sec. 705.4 of the regulations as they affect national security,
including the following:
(i) the current and projected demand for semiconductors (including
as embedded in downstream products) and SME in the United States,
differentiated by product type and node size;
(ii) the extent to which domestic production of semiconductors can
or is expected to be able to meet domestic demand at each node size for
each product type, and similarly the extent to which domestic
production of SME can or is expected to be able to meet domestic
demand;
(iii) the role of foreign fabrication and assembly, test and
packaging facilities in meeting United States semiconductors demand,
and similarly the role of foreign supply of SME in meeting domestic
demand;
(iv) the concentration of United States semiconductors imports
(including as embedded in downstream products) from a small number of
fabrication facilities and the associated risks, and similarly the
concentration of United States SME imports from a small number of
foreign sources;
(v) the impact of foreign government subsidies and predatory trade
practices on United States semiconductor and SME industry
competitiveness;
(vi) the economic or financial impact of artificially suppressed
semiconductor and SME prices due to foreign unfair trade practices and
state-sponsored overcapacity;
(vii) the potential for export restrictions by foreign nations,
including the ability of foreign nations to weaponize their control
over semiconductors and SME supply chains;
(viii) the feasibility of increasing domestic semiconductors
capacity (in different product types and node sizes) to reduce import
reliance, and similarly the feasibility of increasing domestic SME
capacity to reduce import reliance;
(ix) the impact of current trade and other policies on domestic
semiconductor and SME production and capacity, and whether additional
measures, including tariffs or quotas, are necessary to protect
national security;
(x) what product types and node sizes could be built only using SME
from U.S. companies;
(xi) what SME is manufactured abroad and faces limited competition
from U.S.-made products;
(xii) what SME parts or components are only available outside the
United States;
(xiii) where the U.S. workforce faces a talent gap in production of
semiconductors, SME or SME components; and
(xiv) any other relevant factors.
Material submitted by members of the public that contains business
confidential information will be exempted from public disclosure as
provided for by Sec. 705.6 of the regulations (see the ADDRESSES
section of this notice). Communications from agencies of the United
States Government will not be made available for public inspection. The
Bureau of Industry and Security does not maintain a separate public
inspection facility. Requesters should first view the Bureau's web
page, which can be found at: https://efoia.bis.doc.gov/ (see
``Electronic FOIA'' heading). If requesters cannot access the website,
they may call (202) 482-0795 for assistance. The records related to
this assessment are made accessible in accordance with the regulations
published at 15 CFR 4.1 through 4.11.
Eric Longnecker,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Technology Security.
[FR Doc. 2025-06591 Filed 4-14-25; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510-33-P