General > General Technical Chat

Illegal to order from Chinese fabs, export control?

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axemaster:
Hi guys, I am an American student at a university in the USA. I have been using PCBway and other Chinese fabs such as JLC for several years with no issues.

On Friday I was scheduled to receive a 8-layer PCB from PCBway. However, the Export Control Officer for my university seized the package from the loading dock and is refusing to deliver it to me. He claims that it is illegal for us to use Chinese fabricators, and if the package was delivered to me, it would be "a violation that would have to be reported to the federal government".

According to him, by sending my gerber files to the Chinese fab, I exported the files illegally.

I asked him if it illegal for private citizens to order PCBs from Chinese fabs, and he said yes.

Please note, I do not work with weapons or secret technology of any kind. To my knowledge, I have never signed any document compelling secrecy or anything like that.

Basically everyone I know uses Chinese fabs - I asked around the university over the past 2 days and nobody has heard of the restrictions this guy was talking about. Is there any merit to what he is saying? This incident has been stunning and alarming to me.

bdunham7:
Without much more information and probably statement from the person making those claims explaining the basis for them, I wouldn't comment.  He may be a knucklehead or perhaps what you are working on is subject to export control restrictions for some reason.  What may have happened is that your university is taking an overly broad view of export control regulations in order to 'be safe'.   However, I would struggle to understand how any purported violation would be deemed to have occurred only upon the delivery of the PCB to you.  If uploading your files violated some export control restriction, I would think the violation has already occurred and is reportable now. 

In any case, this is all well above your pay grade so to speak.  Your education will now move into the area of bureaucracy, institutional interpersonal relations and regulatory interpretation.  What may have happened is that your university is taking an overly broad view of export control regulations in order to 'be safe'. 

wraper:
Unless your design falls under ITAR, I see no reason why it would be illegal. I guess you could report him to police for illegally posessing your property. Even if he was right, I don't see how ITAR violation by exporting your files to China would result in seizing imported PCBs.

coppice:
If sending Gerber files for a PCB to a Chinese fab were illegal, most of the US electronics industry would shut down until alternative suppliers develop. US export regulations have very specific rules about what technology can be exported (exporting design information, rather than stuff, would be considered a technology export). Gerbers would have to be implementing something very original to fall foul of those rules.

BrokenYugo:
I'd suggest complaining upward. If you're right, it isn't your job to tell them to pull their head out of their ass. In the highly unlikely event you're wrong it's already documented with your name on it, no harm making a good faith effort to rectify the situation.

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