US’ export-control licensing regime costs billions in lost exports, with items
‘already available in China’ from variety of other suppliers
·
Limited
Strategic Gain:
A US-China Business Council (USCBC) survey says prolonged US export-control licensing
delays are providing little
strategic benefit while hurting American companies’ competitiveness
in China.
·
Survey
Coverage:
The July 2026 flash survey covered 31
US companies across technology, industrial/manufacturing, energy
and healthcare sectors.
·
95%
Cite Delays:
95% of respondents
identified lengthy licence reviews as their biggest challenge.
·
71%
Facing Delays:
71% reported
delays in obtaining export licences for shipments to China.
·
Long
Pending Periods:
About two-thirds
said applications had been pending for at
least three months, exceeding the statutory 90-day processing period.
·
Very
Long Delays:
31% reported
applications pending for 1–2
years.
·
Foreign
Alternatives Available:
More than 80%
said the controlled products had comparable alternatives available from Chinese or international suppliers.
·
Lost
Sales:
73% of companies
reported losing sales to Chinese
competitors, while 55%
lost sales to other international competitors.
·
Market-Share
Loss:
64% said export-control
delays resulted in loss of market share in China.
·
Confidence
in BIS:
Only 30% believed
the US Commerce Department’s Bureau
of Industry and Security (BIS) follows established procedures and
timelines to a great or moderate extent.
·
BIS
Processing:
BIS reportedly took an average of 62
days to process export licence applications
in 2025—24 days longer than
in 2023—while processing 20%
fewer applications than in 2023.
·
Impact
on Innovation:
USCBC argues that lost sales and profits reduce funds available for US research and development,
potentially weakening technological leadership.
·
US-China
Trade Impact:
US goods exports to China fell by more
than 25% in 2025 to US$106.3 billion.
·
Supply-Chain
Risk:
The business group warns that once US suppliers are replaced in Chinese supply chains,
lost customers, exports and
jobs may be difficult to recover.
·
Broader
Tensions:
The findings come amid continuing US-China
tariff, trade and technology tensions, including reciprocal export
controls.
·
Call
for Calibration:
USCBC supports export controls for national-security purposes but argues they should
consider foreign availability
and commercial realities.
·
Leadership
Engagement:
The expected meeting between Donald
Trump and Xi Jinping is viewed by the business community as important
for stabilising bilateral relations and resolving trade
bottlenecks.
[ABS News Service/12.08.2026]
The Trump administration’s export-control licensing regime is achieving
little strategic benefit while costing the United States billions of dollars in lost exports and
undermining American companies’ global market share, according to a new business
survey.
“Months-long licensing
delays are costing the United States billions of dollars in exports and eroding
American market share globally,” the US-China Business Council (USCBC) found in a flash survey of companies
conducted in July.
The survey also found
that most of the pending export licences are for items that are “already available
in China from Chinese or international suppliers – effectively sidelining American
companies for no strategic gain”.
“Export controls are important, but if they are not calibrated, then
they have the reverse effect,” Sean Stein, president of the USCBC, told the South
China Morning Post.
“They undermine US competitiveness, undermine US technological leadership
while doing nothing to protect national security.”
The USCBC is a non-profit association of around 270
American companies that conduct business in China. The latest flash survey covered
31 companies from the technology, industrial and manufacturing, energy, and healthcare sectors.
The report comes amid ongoing tit-for-tat escalations between Washington and Beijing, as tensions over trade and technology continue to strain economic ties.
The US has imposed new tariffs on Chinese imports, while
both countries have expanded export controls and other measures targeting companies.
The retaliatory actions have added uncertainty for businesses
operating between the world’s two largest economies and complicated efforts to stabilise
bilateral economic relations.
The survey said that “poorly calibrated US export controls
weaken American companies in China”, ceding market share to foreign competitors
while “reducing the profits available for research and development”.
“This diminishes America’s ability to innovate and undermines
US economic security,” the report noted.
The most common challenge, cited by 95 per cent of companies,
was lengthy licence reviews.
Seventy-one per cent of respondents reported delays
in obtaining licences to export goods to China. Two-thirds said their applications
had been pending for at least three months – exceeding
the US Commerce Department’s statutory 90-day processing requirement.
Nearly a third, or 31
per cent, said their applications had been pending for one to two years.
The delays mark a sharp
departure from previous practice, with 56 per cent of companies saying comparable
export licence applications were reviewed within one to three months before the
current administration.
The survey added that
prolonged delays are eroding confidence in export control agencies, with only 30
per cent of respondents saying the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and
Security (BIS) follows its established procedures and timelines to a great or moderate
extent.
The BIS said it took
an average of 62 days to process export licence applications in 2025, 24 days longer
than in 2023, according to its annual reports to the US Congress. The agency also processed 20 per cent fewer applications
last year than it did in 2023.
More than 80 per cent
of surveyed companies said their pending licence applications covered items for
which comparable alternatives were available from Chinese and international suppliers.
“By failing to account
for foreign availability, regulators are handicapping America’s most innovative
companies and ceding ground to competitors without meaningfully advancing US national
security,” the report highlighted.
The delays have already
translated into lost business, with 73 per cent of companies reporting lost sales
to Chinese competitors and 55 per cent reporting lost sales to international competitors.
A further 64 per cent said the delays resulted in lost market share in China.
“Once you’re engineered
out of the supply chain, those sales don’t come back, those exports don’t come back,
those jobs don’t come back,” Stein added.
US goods exports to
China declined by more than a quarter in 2025 to US$106.3 billion, as total two-way
goods trade between the countries stood at an estimated US$414.7 billion, according
to figures from the US Trade Representative.
Stein called the expected meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping next month “enormously important” to “solidify the
strategic stability”.
“One thing that we have
seen is the single most important factor to stabilising the relationship has been
leader-to-leader contact,” he said, adding that the engagement “only moves forward
when the two leaders meet”.
“The business community
is really looking forward to this meeting because we are hoping it will bring even
more clarity to both the state of the truce and to help eliminate some of the bottlenecks
in trade between the two countries,” he stressed.