Washington, DC – Today, Representatives Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), sent a joint letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick condemning the Trump administration’s use of semiconductor export controls as negotiating leverage in trade talks with the People’s Republic of China.
Citing recent public statements by senior Trump administration officials describing high-end AI chips as a “negotiating chip,” the Ranking Members wrote that the administration’s actions “undermine the core purpose” of export controls: safeguarding U.S. national security.
“Using these tools as leverage in commercial negotiations with an authoritarian competitor undermines their core purpose,” the lawmakers wrote. “This approach risks eroding the credibility of our export controls regime, blurs the line between economic and security priorities, and sends a dangerous signal that critical guardrails are up for negotiation.”
Meeks and Krishnamoorthi further warn that the Trump administration’s reversal—just three months after initially restricting the export of the H20 chip—appears to contradict sworn congressional testimony and will damage multilateral efforts to constrain the CCP’s AI military ambitions.
“The statements by both you and Secretary Bessent last week about using the H20 restrictions as a ‘negotiating chip’ contradict [Under Secretary Jeffrey] Kessler’s sworn testimony and highlight the extent to which the Administration has repeatedly misled the American people and put our national security at risk,” they wrote.
The lawmakers also raised alarms over the timing of the decision—made just days after NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang met with President Trump at the White House. As reported by the New York Times, the President reversed course on export controls during that meeting, without consulting the Secretaries of Commerce, Defense, State, or Energy.
“This signals to our adversaries that the United States could backtrack on any policies, even those impacting national security, if the President gets pressured by the right corporate leader,” the letter states.
The letter stresses the importance of administering export controls in the manner envisioned by Congress, as required by the Export Control Reform Act of 2018. The lawmakers wrote, “If we want to prevent Beijing from winning the AI race of our own accord and preserve the multilateral export control regimes that we have strived on a bipartisan basis to establish and preserve, we cannot allow the lines between national security policy and trade policy to become blurred. Ceding away our primary advantage in the AI competition in exchange for short-term trade benefits defies common sense, sets a troubling precedent, and undermines our ability to work with our allies and partners.”
The full text of the letter is available here.
Citing recent public statements by senior Trump administration officials describing high-end AI chips as a “negotiating chip,” the Ranking Members wrote that the administration’s actions “undermine the core purpose” of export controls: safeguarding U.S. national security.
“Using these tools as leverage in commercial negotiations with an authoritarian competitor undermines their core purpose,” the lawmakers wrote. “This approach risks eroding the credibility of our export controls regime, blurs the line between economic and security priorities, and sends a dangerous signal that critical guardrails are up for negotiation.”
Meeks and Krishnamoorthi further warn that the Trump administration’s reversal—just three months after initially restricting the export of the H20 chip—appears to contradict sworn congressional testimony and will damage multilateral efforts to constrain the CCP’s AI military ambitions.
“The statements by both you and Secretary Bessent last week about using the H20 restrictions as a ‘negotiating chip’ contradict [Under Secretary Jeffrey] Kessler’s sworn testimony and highlight the extent to which the Administration has repeatedly misled the American people and put our national security at risk,” they wrote.
The lawmakers also raised alarms over the timing of the decision—made just days after NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang met with President Trump at the White House. As reported by the New York Times, the President reversed course on export controls during that meeting, without consulting the Secretaries of Commerce, Defense, State, or Energy.
“This signals to our adversaries that the United States could backtrack on any policies, even those impacting national security, if the President gets pressured by the right corporate leader,” the letter states.
The letter stresses the importance of administering export controls in the manner envisioned by Congress, as required by the Export Control Reform Act of 2018. The lawmakers wrote, “If we want to prevent Beijing from winning the AI race of our own accord and preserve the multilateral export control regimes that we have strived on a bipartisan basis to establish and preserve, we cannot allow the lines between national security policy and trade policy to become blurred. Ceding away our primary advantage in the AI competition in exchange for short-term trade benefits defies common sense, sets a troubling precedent, and undermines our ability to work with our allies and partners.”
The full text of the letter is available here.