Geotech: Geotech competition pathways 2024

The United States is poised to build on policy moves and approaches to economic security set in motion through 2023 as the government navigates a presidential election year, and looks ahead to the next presidential administration. The Biden administration national security team and key Members of Congress have focused on various measures already, including domestic technology capability investments, trade measures, export controls, outbound investment limitations, Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) reviews, supply chain security initiatives with allies, as well as public shaming of private sector actors investing in firms with links to Chinese military capabilities.

The United States is now moving into a second phase following earlier passage of the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America (CHIPS) Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and other measures to address its domestic economic security concerns. These first round moves still face inevitable implementation challenges, and a more robust, long-term trade strategy is needed that addresses deeper supply chain issues, workforce development and industrial base considerations, as well as revisions and refinements to the initial efforts on export controls and other nascent policies.

At the end of 2023, the House Select Committee on the Competition with the Communist Party of China (China Select Committee) released an extensive series of recommendations on how best to shape many of these policy priorities. While U.S. businesses track these Congressional proposals, greater pressure on U.S.-China economic relations continues to come from China’s economic downturn and business-unfriendly policies by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Meanwhile, as the United States soon enters the general election phase of the presidential election, and political rhetoric heats up, Congress is already struggling to compromise even on the basics like a federal budget for the current fiscal year. This report thus looks ahead to the prospects of U.S. strategy on Geotech competition and the likelihood of progress on these measures as a potential second Biden term, or possible second Trump term, looms over the horizon in 2025.

PUBLICATION DETAILS

TITLE:

Geotech: Geotech Competition Pathways 2024

publication date:

April 2024