
Zach Tomatz
Senior Manager, Business Advisory Services
Washington, DC
Senior Manager, Business Advisory Services
Washington, DC
Zach is a senior manager of business advisory services at the US-China Business Council. His work focuses on industrial policy, standards, and export controls. Before joining USCBC, he worked on trade and supply chain issues at the American Chemistry Council. He holds a master’s degree in International Trade and Economic Diplomacy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, with a language specialization in Chinese. He has a BA in History from the University of North Florida and studied Chinese at Shaanxi Normal University. Outside of US-China commercial relations, Zach is fascinated with Tang and Qing dynasty history and enjoys various outdoor hobbies.
During its final month in office, the Biden administration has released a slew of measures regulating commercial relations with China, capping off years of work in some areas and jumpstarting new types of rulemaking in others. Recent measures include precedent-setting export controls on the semiconductors needed to power artificial intelligence (AI) models, new blacklistings, and a Section 301 investigation.
The United States on December 2 released the third iteration of controls on the export of advanced chips and chipmaking equipment to China, as well as outright bans on exports to certain Chinese companies. These new US rules are technically challenging and will require significant overhauls to semiconductor companies’ compliance architectures.
China’s new Export Control Regulations on Dual-Use Items, released in October, grant the Chinese government the authority to require a license to export certain covered products, technologies, and services that are found in, or can be used to produce, certain chemical, biological, missile, and nuclear items.
The Department of Justice on Monday released the second iteration of a proposed rule to implement an executive order aimed at preventing certain entities from accessing US persons’ data. First introduced in February, the rule would limit the transfer of sensitive US personal data to countries of concern, including China.
At a tech conference last month, Minister of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) Jin Zhuanglong praised the advancement of China’s domestically-developed software, AI, and associated technologies. He promised to expand government support for the ecosystem as part of China’s xinchuang—or innovation technology application innovation (ITAI)—initiative.