By Alexandre Lamy, Alison Stafford Powell, Rod Hunter and Daniel Andreeff ( December 19, 2018, 2:59 PM EST) -- On Nov. 19, 2018, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, or BIS, published a long-awaited advance notice of proposed rulemaking, or ANPRM, seeking public comment on criteria for identifying "emerging technologies" that are essential to U.S. national security, with a view to imposing export controls on such largely uncontrolled technologies. This process is being undertaken pursuant to Section 1758 of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018, or ECRA, which mandates the establishment of a regular multi-agency process for identifying appropriate controls on emerging and foundational technologies that are "essential to the national security of the United States" and that are currently subject to no or very limited controls under other existing U.S. export control regimes. (BIS also announced that it will issue a separate ANPRM in the future regarding the identification of foundational technologies that may be important to U.S. national security.)...